




































































































































































































































































Wm* ti : 
V ° 




vP ^ 


; W 

* Cy> ^ 

* c> 

<0 ^ * * s A V 

0^ o 0 JL°*-*o^ t * L ' a 



"*m 5 r ® A^ ° 

* V <* 

<■ •»•'■• a° 

♦ * c° .‘J 






<*' t* * 

.„™,- 

,0 *7* 

^ <£► w 

,* n 0 "* '.^ ^ ^ '• 

A 0 ?s ‘*° •*• 

A ,*V> -> v ,*«'a'. ^ 

AA ^ A * /JNX&'T A. “ ^ 

* ♦ A V * (d\W /A O 'J 

vA 



c * 

? ■* 4 " 

^ ^ Or 

^o 


* <£* "Pp 

■6 4/ 

A° % ‘ ••' aS 

/x* 0 * 0 ^ *V> 

0 ° -‘^vl'. °0 ,-J* .* 


?; j. 0 

V V ; ^*‘ / 

.0 ><••'» V ' v 

> * ^ AV * - 

: vv 

* C? v/ V 

* <*> v c> 

<r. 4 °*a g v \p */?'..* A ^ 

^ r 0 ^ A^ a'J/* ^ 

V. A ^ .V5SSW-* ° A '^p <i 

,» *« v'S||® f : *° -v. -, 

• < 3 .^ O * rC> ~k* •>> 

1 * * * 1 ' f 0 ^ * * * ° " \* ^ ^ 

v a*°- cv ,<y avl'* *> v **•«?* -\P 

»-«. 5 » . ^ a g ^ *, 'jf&fP/Lo %• /y - 

: W :#fe: : 

, aGvTV 

«s» ^ 

^ ^ ^ ♦ <S & + 4 - V r{^ * 

o ^ A <a '«> * A A 0 o <*.*' v> ^ 

" O ^ + v^ ^ ^ G . *^s5S^hV- ° ,v V 



4 O 

0 - 0 .^ A<V 

■> 

0* A 


“ A> V 

• A V G- » 

4 V ^ 


• ° 

4 ^y -& ° 


</» \V 

O V 


•v^V'*--*’ ^ «* 

» ^ -r^ -lS. • A V * -rfYW /V> “ ^ 

: : ^XNSi 

* 'Pp 
4 v x?> 

• •& & r <y & *> 

<. * O * A 

;- "X ^ 

x -» %p 4 , ' 


P G 

4 n 


^■0^ 


^-O A< O^ 


4 O 

H 0 <* 


4 O N O ° ^ 

* * ’ ' %> V * 1 * ° 


/ ^ \ \ 




'p 


0 * c 0 “ ® -» o 




0 




\ 


o 4 * , i * 


<P 


«. ’ * °A- O 


* A*^ *• 

<• V f 

“ °X V 
• : 

, . ^ojisiA- / V <f 

o. A O '»•*' 

„ ^o A .-*, o> 

'* O + *-/r?? 7 ^ ■» Xfr 

<V- ^o* 


• run Fw ^ O' .°• 

6 lj^ • .i ^ „/»*y • 

..-■S''-" A .■■:'%•■' A*’ 

- \VW\tt- 1 */' / A i A > 


«• '>' vP" 

o > 




' . . S 


G 


o V 


G v 

-t~ °y 


X ' 

1 6 <P A 

• 


♦ OK'd/ 

K /X' 1 fr 

•. "> - "4 


A 0 "7" 

. 0 ^ V ", 

■’ / * ' 
iV * • • 

0 


* 


o 

<y ^ 

.' ^ o 

<*> 4 »„ o 0 <y °^ * • >' 

*"'■ ^ v % ,/,x 

•<•<’ :^ww%\ ' s ’{' < -' > i 

a f/// w\vyr “ c^ ^p j ° vV ° 

oVJ&AH ; 4 G s ^ <^ °. 

" ^ r 0 ^ ° 0 ^ ^ 


<0 ^ 

> & ^ 
+ r^ ^ * 


0' ^ .G 


^5 C U> 

4 r 


’’ ° N ° ' *£> 


s — A ■> V r t> f * ° 


<p <6 


V "V.A 


*<A 


■ A 

4 <t/ ^ 


x 


o <.°_" <l > o 




aP' 

^ o «5 X. 

^•' ^ «o„ 

’ y °4. * 

V A • °- Ca-^ , 

♦ A^ik:» \/ 


^-0^ 


,4 o 




^ \ > «• 
a r O 

6 r 0 A » O ♦ , t 

0 M 0 H/a 8 • 1 


’•o- o, vO «*.VL'* ^ V A. •«. jvO s s **% V 




* » 


<* 


O * A 




•a ^ at v 
o ^<> /A ^ 

° 'j'V ° 

0 A^'^Xa o 

♦ ^ ^ o 

'o *s? 7 l* A '<»'•* 

0 V c 0 N * -» cJ ^G . >■ ' «^ 






* r „ 



















s s A ° * 

A . >• ' * „ ^ 0^ 

' *, ** o< • 






° ^ 

••’■ -°' ^ '*^ v \/ V**- 

V . • * ”- C* 

■=> .<c> ,'AV. ^ 

W ;1M t ^ 

V> ^ 

4 V ♦ 

4 .V 

<V '*•** ^ 


/ ^ ^ ^ 

C* '° * * * A ' ; y v ' . . * s A <\* *°. * * .G* -o ' A 

^ ,0^ o° N °* ^o A % • •■'■•* o^ c 0 " 0 * **b A % 

^ C •a 55^^-. ° ^ ♦ Vv7^ * ^ G •isS^V' o A * 




&: *bv* fSjmitoZ* "W •* 



°^ A 0 

C\ .<T , * 

♦ Tvv A* * - 

° <^ n c* 

° ^ G S 

■ *>*v *.«« a 



\X 4^ 


♦ r 1 


. «5 °* 

•' A o 

'«> *“•■> ,v °^ • 

'. V v .'•>■. cv 

• ** & * AVA" ^ C,- 

v«* .4Vw. °Vv 

* - ^ vT* 

/ A ^ 

s A y> g v ^ vyyA a < -o’ a,- ,g 

*^ v t* \J*!* ^ .o^ ( °“% ^o A * 1 * *♦ o^ o° 

* VvT/^s " v_ 0 • ' O j ^ . 1 *,/r?7^ -* v_, G * 

o^^TiV* ^_A' *>.A 








l> 'TV A 

, o > * 

A -TV 

> * <*v 

? <v v^v <,* 

f' ,.., " .%* 

s 5 .-_/ ♦ ** V * 

> ^ ^<0*^ *> 0> 

^^ ° * \G y. • • ♦ » \ 

^ c 0 " t0 4c°^ ° 0 a* 4 


., i - ’ A ^ * o; o ° y, ' * 

- V A ^ \ 


* & % 

■ »..*'/ a 

.0 o 0 " ° >r O A 

G • ^sr^V O - v K 


<N. + JK 

T>- *- JVf 




1 T 











































































SPEECHES 


OF 


SAM/HOUSTON, OF TEXAS, 


ON THE SUBJECT OF 


N. 

■ > 


AN INCREASE OF THE ARMY, 


\ 


AND 




THE INDIAN POLICY OF TIIE GOVERNMENT, 


DELIVERED IN THE 


SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, JANUARY 29 AND 31, 1855. 




WASHINGTON: 

PRINTED AT THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE OFFICE* 

1855 




&s 

8 a ii a a hih ^43 


8 AX SI 10 f X0T8'u 0,, 0 A 8 




,ViO'{A ;. 11 T -iO JWAvaoKI Ki. 




A/iai* • h h . n ; 4 r io / 31 j <> ‘i v, l ; :-; .< t 




an hi ’ 3 ? i 






: Vf O T 0 VI I H * A W 
.aomo a«o ■ d .jav .;*/*•♦ r */. ? :mr r* v- wt 

iui 








INDIAN POLICY, & c 


January 29, 1855. I 

The Senate resumed, as in Committee of the Whole, the I 
consideration of the bill from the Mouse of Representatives, j 
making appropriations for the support of the Army for the 
year ending the 30th of June, 1856, the pending question 
being on the amendment of Mr. Shields to the amend¬ 
ment of Mr. Hunter, (which is to provide for two addi¬ 
tional Regiments of Regular Cavalry and five hundred Ran¬ 
gers,) to substitute for that provision two Regiments of 
Infantry, and two of Cavalry. 

Mr. HOUSTON said: 

Mr. President. Before the Senate proceed to j 
vote upon the adoption of the policy now pro¬ 
posed, I think it would be well to examine the 
causes which have led to the present condition of 
affairs, and then to inquire into the best means for l j 
the restoration of peace upon our Indian frontier. 
An examination of this sort will inform us whether 
there is any necessity for an increase of the mili¬ 
tary force of the country. 

1 am aware, sir, that, in discussing subjects 
which relate to the Indians, or to their rights, I 
shall command but little sympathy from the Sen¬ 
ate, and not much from the country. They are 
a people isolated in their interest, and solely de¬ 
pendent for protection and justice upon the Gov¬ 
ernment of the United States. How far justice 
has been accorded to them in the past, or how far 
it is, in all probability, to be awarded to them in 
the future, is a matter beyond speculation. If we! 
are to judge from the past experience of our times, | 
we should infer that there is but very little hope 
of anything being done for the red man; and we 
should infer that, in the opinion of his white: 
brethren, his doom has already been written and ■ 
recorded. 

Mr. President, the Indians have been charged 
with an aggressive and hostile spirit towards the 
whites; but we find, upon inquiry, that every in¬ 
stance of that sort which has been imputed to 
them, has been induced and provoked by the white 
man, either by acts of direct aggression upon the 
Indians, or by his own incaution, alluring them j 
to a violation of the security of the whites. They | 
have tempted the cupidity of the Indians. If a 


lawless fellow happens to prove vagrant to his 
band, and throws off all the rules and restrictiosn 
imposed by the chiefs on their warriors, and 
chooses to involve his nation in a difficulty by 
taking the life of a white man, if he can do so, as 
he supposes, with impunity, his action is charged 
to his tribe; but they should not be held respon¬ 
sible. Sir, we have seen thrilling accounts of 
sanguinary massacres, which alarm us at the first 
blush; and if we are to believe the paragraphs 
disseminated through the medium of the press, we 
should suppose, in reality, that the Indian was as 
barbarous as he had ever been, and that all the 
assaults or massacres, as they are termed, are 
unprovoked and wantonly inflicted on the de¬ 
fenseless white man. As an instance of this, let 
me mention the massacre at Fort Laramie, and 
from that instance you can pretty accurately de¬ 
duce the true condition of other acts of a similar 
character. What were the circumstances in con¬ 
nection with that case? 

During the last summer, some bands of the 
Sioux nation of Indians were encamped within 
six miles of Fort Laramie. They were in amity 
with the United States, and on terms of friend¬ 
ship and good feeling with the officers and men 
of the neighboring fort. A man from a neighbor¬ 
ing tribe, whose relatives had, a year before, been 
slaughtered by the troops at Fort Laramie, hap¬ 
pened to be among these bands of Sioux. Some 
Mormon emigrants passed by the camp of the 
Indians, and a cow escaped from them, made 
towards the village, and the Mormons pursued 
her, but unsuccessfully. The Indian to whom I 
have referred, by way of revenge for the loss of 
his relative, slaughtered the animal. Complaint 
was made at Fort Laramie. The chiefs instantly 
said that they would see that reparation was made 
for the injury which had been done. Was this 
satisfactory to the commanding officer? No, sir; 
but he detailed a brevet lieutenant, with a com¬ 
pany, for the purpose of arresting the Indian. 
The company arrived at the encampment of the 
Indians with two pieces of artillery. Demand 
was made of the chiefs, but this Indian said to 










-r 

them, “ I have taken a lodge here; I am willing to 
die; you have nothing to do with this matter; you 
have no concern with it; the responsibility is not 
upon your people, but it is upon me alone. ” So 
Boon as this reply was given to the lieutenant, he 
fired and crippled one of the principal chiefs, and 
killed a man. The delinquent still refused to give 
up. After that, the chiefs rallied and exhorted 
the men to commit no outrage; their influence con¬ 
trolled the action of the Indians; but a drunken 
interpreter, who was calculated to incite the lieu¬ 
tenant to action, caused him, no doubt, to fire his 
cannon. The next thing was that the war-whoop 
was sounded, and the lieutenant and part of his 
men were killed. The others dispersed, were 
pursued by the Indians in hot blood, and every 
man was slaughtered. 

This is a succinct narrative of that event. 
Were the Indians to blame? He who violates a 
law is the man who is responsible for the conse¬ 
quences of that violation. The Indian intercourse 
laws of the United States, have pointed out the 
manner in which to proceed in such a case. If a 
citizen sustains injury from any tribe, or from an 
individual of a tribe, information is to be given to 
the Indian agent for that tribe. He is immediately 
to make a demand upon the chiefs of the nation. 
If they do not surrender the individual, which, in 
all probability they would do immediately, if they 
were treated in good faith, deduction is made from 
their annuities for the amount of the injury, and 
there the matter stops. If no annuities are due to 
them, rather than bring on war, the United States 
Treasury is responsible to the individual who has 
sustained loss. These are the provisions of the 
intercourse laws. In this case, did either of the 
officers make a demand on the chiefs? The chiefs 
Bent an assurance that justice would be done, and 
the individual given up, though he did not belong 
to their band. The officers, unwilling to receive 
that assurance, dispatched a handful of men 
against several lodges of I ndians, and among whom 
there had been some ground of complaint. The 
consequences which 1 have narrated, resulted from 
this indiscretion and violation of law. It was a 
violation of law, for no demand was made upon 
the chiefs for indemnity, and no response was 
received from them These gallant gentlemen 
thought they should go there and make war. 
They are paid for it; “ it is their vocation.” Are 
such men entitled to sympathy? Are they entitled 
to respect? But their conduct alarmed the Sioux; 
and because that tribe proposed to confederate with 
other tribes, we are asked to increase the military 
force of the country; forsooth, we are to wage war 
upon the winds, for you might as well do it, as 
upon the prairie Indians. 

But this is not all that grew out of that transac¬ 
tion. A clamor is raised about the mail party 
who were destroyed subsequently to that. It 
was very natural to expect that it would be done. 
The Sioux chief, who was wounded on the occa¬ 
sion to which I have referred, was taken to the 
Arkansas, and there he expired in consequence 
of the injury he had received. His kindred re¬ 
solved to revenge his death. The Indian appre¬ 
ciates the ties of kindred far beyond any white 
<man. They may have less intelligence; but the 
chords of nature are stronger, the sensibilities of 
the heart more lively than those which stimulate 
<our Christian, enlightened action. It is well known 


that the grief which resounds through the Indian 
! camp, when a warrior or chief expires, or when 
|a relative dies, is like the wailing of Egypt, 
j When this chief expired, his friends sought for a 
, white man, that they might take vengeance on him 
! —not for those who had inflicted the wrong, but 
whoever they might happen to And among the 
whites. They first came upon the mail party. 
One, who was not a relative of the chief, said to 
one of his kindred, “ there is a white man, you 
can now take vengeance on him; you are a coward 
if youdo not do so.” He said, “I amno coward; 
but if you say it, I will kill him. ” Then he went 
and killed two out of the three composing the mail 
party. 

Now, sir, what had been the condition of the 
Indian country previous to these occurrences? I 
have been assured by gentlemen who have passed 
from California to Fort Laramie, a distance of 
one thousand four hundred or one thousand five 
hundred miles, that they met individuals traveling 
alone through that vast region. They passed 
through a wilderness of one thousand four hun¬ 
dred or one thousand five hundred miles unas- 
sailed, and without injury from any one. Did 
this look like a desperate feeling on the part of the 
Indians, when they allowed unprotected individ¬ 
uals, sometimes singly, occasionally in small com¬ 
panies of three or four persons, to pass through 
their country unmolested ? No, sir. It is some 
sudden act of wrong and outrage which stimulates 
the Indian to aggression. He has no inducement 
to it unless he expects great plunder, because he 
is very well aware that if he cultivates kind and 
friendly relations with the whites, he can receive 
from them supplies that he cannot obtain any other 
way—things which gratify his taste for dress,and 
supply his wants and appetites. For this reason, 
the Indian is always disposed to be in peace and 
friendship with his white neighbors if he can. 

I have given some illustrations of the so-called 
Indian outrages. 1 may refer to another one, 
which not long since took place in Oregon, and 
which is given, in some quarters, as a reason why 
an increase of the Army is required. I refer to a 
recent massacre of the Indians at a ferry house 
in Oregon, as described by the agents and super¬ 
intendents of that Territory. A number of miners 
to the amount of forty, associated together to 
attack a villiage of seventy Indians, men, women, 
and children, without any means of defense, with 
only five pieces of fire-arms, pistols, and guns, 
and two of them entirely useless. The officer, 
who reports the action, describes in a most mil¬ 
itary and elegant style, the manner in which he 
assaulted the village in three divisions. They were 
entirely successful; killed some sixteen men, 
killed one squaw, and wounded a couple, and no 
children—that was merciful! But, sir, they scat¬ 
tered the warriors who were there defenseless, and 
applied the torch to their wigwams. We are told 
by the gallant gentleman who reported the matter, 

I that the next day the Indians were there hovering 
! about the mouldering ashes of their wigwams. 
This gallant and chivalrous man, wonderful to 
relate, says he did not lose a man in the attack 
Was he not lucky? [Laughter.] That fellow- 
must look out for a brevet; though I hope he will 
hardly come here claiming bounty land. [Laugh¬ 
ter.] 

This act is denounced by the agent and superin- 












tendent ns most cruel and barbarous. The poor 
creatures were willing to do anything and every¬ 
thing which was asked of them. They denied 
every charge that the malicious and the wanton 
had brought against them; and the truth of their 
narrative is indorsed by the agent, a man of intelli¬ 
gence. I do not know him; but his report bears 
the impress of intelligence and integrity. 

Well, sir, these circumstances, it is said, call 
for an army of three regiments, or three thousand j 
men. What are they to cost? Five millions | 
of dollars is the amount which it is proposed to 
appropriate by the bill which was reported by the 
Senator from Illinois. We are to appropriate! 
$5,000,000 to bring on a great Sioux war, to meet | 
a most wonderful confederacy, which, it is said, 
is forming among the Indians. Why, sir, they 
cannot keep together, because they are starving 
in little bands, even in those parts of the country 
where they can command the most game. How 
could they remain embodied for any length of 
time without supplies, without animals, and 
without food, when their wom£n and children are 
starving? How could they, under such circum¬ 
stances, remain a mighty confederation, to sweep 
our frontier? Why, sir, from the display that is 
made, by the terrible cry of alarm, one would think 
that New Orleans itself could hardly be safe, but 
that the Indians would sweep down the Missouri 
and Mississippi, and carry death, destruction, 
and devastation in their course ! 

Are these causes calculated to produce such 
mighty effects? Is it proper that the nation should 
be involved in a general Indian war at this time? 
Is it proper that $5,000,000 should be expended 
from the Treasury to begin this war? If this be 
done, what will be the consequence ? The Indians 
will not be embodied to meet you. Your troops 
will hear that in some direction there isaCaman- 
che, or a Kicway, or an Osage camp, and they 
will advance upon it with “ all the pomp and cir¬ 
cumstance of a glorious war.” A morning gun 
will be fired as a signal to rise and prepare for the 
march. On such an occasion, with the bugle 
sounding in advance, how beautiful must be the 
reflection from the arms and banners floating in 
the prairie! That is to be the spectacle which is 
to amuse or drive the Indians ahead. They are to 
meet the Indians on a trackless waste. You might 
as well pursue the course of a ship s keel on the 
ocean, as to pursue the Indians of the prairies. 
They would disperse, and your army would be 
left there;and they, perhaps, surrounding you, in 
the distance, and laughing at the glorious pomp 
with which you were marching through their 
prairies. If you take men there, and make a dis¬ 
play without efficiency, you provoke their ridicule 
and supreme contempt. .... , 

But, Mr. President, the course which has been 
pursued, since the days of ^Vllliam I enn to the 
present moment, has not been entirely successful 
in conciliating the Indians. Under the manage¬ 
ment of Washington, of the first Adams, of Mad¬ 
ison, of Monroe, of the second Adams, of Jack- 
son, and of Polk, we have, with few exceptions, 
been very successful in maintaining peace with 
them. The suggestions made by our fathers, in 
relation to their civilization and humanization,are 
exemplified and illustrated in the present condi¬ 
tion of the southern tribes, who have received the 
greatest benefits of the light shed on them; and 


they have responded to it by the cultivation of 
mind, by the development of resources, both 
physical and intellectual, which reflect luster on 
their character. Cannot the Indian now be influ¬ 
enced in the same way, by the same means? Have 
we no landmarks to guide us? Have we not ex¬ 
perience to teach us? Have we not humanity to 
prompt us to march on in the path which is already 
laid out before us ? 

Sir, how different is the policy now pursued 
from what it once was? I must read, for the in¬ 
struction of the Senate, an extract from the last 
annual report of the Commissioner of Indian Af¬ 
fairs, and I beseech your attention to it, because 
it contains more good sense and reflection than I 
could impart in the same number of words. It 
will be necessary in the examination of this sub¬ 
ject, in relation both to the Indiansand the Army, 
to see in what manner they harmonize with each 
other, and how far the one is necessary to the suc¬ 
cess of the other. The Commissioner of Indian 
Affairs, in his report to the Secretary of the In¬ 
terior, describes a transaction to which I wish to 
call attention: 

“ As heretofore reported to you, an association of per¬ 
sons has undertaken to appropriate to their own use a por¬ 
tion of the land ceded by the Delawares, fronting on the 
Missouri river, and south of Fort Leavenworth ; have laid 
out a city thereon, and actually had a public sale of the lots 
of the same on the 9th and 10th of October last. These 
unlawful proceedings have not only taken place under the 
eyes of the military officers stationed at the fort, but two of 
them are said to be members of the association, and have 
been active agents in this discreditable business. Encour¬ 
aged by these proceedings, and prompted by those engaged 
in them, other persons have gone on other portions of the 
tract ceded by the Delawares in trust to the United States, 
and pretend to have made, and are now making, such 
‘ claims’ as they assert will vest in them the lawful right to 
enter the land at the minimum price under the preemption 
law of July 12, 1854.”, 

This is a specimen of the aid and succor afforded 
by military commanders to the agents to maintain 
and preserve peace among the Indians. These 
are the gentlemen to whom the agents look for 
cooperation in the discharge of their duties, and 
to afford equal protection to the Indians against 
aggressions from the whites, as to the whites 
against aggressions from the Indians. Such a 
transaction as is here disclosed is an act of unmit¬ 
igated infamy in the officers who have lent them¬ 
selves to it. I hope the Executive, in the pleni¬ 
tude of his power, and in the exercise of a wise 
and just discretion, will erase their names from 
the records of the country, and redeem our annals 
from infamy so blackening as this. Think, sir, 
of an officer wearing an American sword, adorned 
with American epauletts, the emblem of office and 
the insignia of honor and manly pride, degrading 
himself by a violation of the faith of his Govern¬ 
ment, rendering him a disgrace to the uniform 
which he wears and the earth upon which he 
treads! 

It will be recollected that the Delaware Indians 
own one million eight hundred thousand acres of 
land. They ceded one million three hundred 
thousand acres to the Government of the United 
States for $10,000, reserving to themselves the 
land on which the city referred to has been laid 
out, on the banks of the Missouri. They confided 
five hundred thousand acres to the Government of 
the United States, as they could not themselves 
dispose of it, except to the Government; and, be¬ 
lieving that it would be a source of wealth and 

















6 


independence to them, they have granted it to the 
Government, in trust, to he sold by it, the right of 
possession remaining in them until it should be 
disposed of. It appears, from the commissioner’s 
report, that persons had gone and taken posses¬ 
sion of this land. If they have not done so, they 
ought to be vindicated against the charge. 1 re¬ 
gard it as authenticand official, and until it is con¬ 
troverted, I have nothing to extenuate; nor do I 
set down aught in malice. Justice requires me to 
state the facts. 

Mr. President, I said to the Senate, on a former 
occasion, that eighteen tribes of Indians had been 
located by this Government within the limits of 
the present Territories of Nebraska and Kansas, 
and that most of them had been removed there 
from the east of the Mississippi. They were 
located there under the faith of solemn pledges, 
that while grass grew, or water run, or the earth 
brought forth its fruits, they should remain on the 
lands assigned to them unless they chose to aban¬ 
don them, and that they should not be included 
within the boundaries of any State or Territory. 
Notwithstanding this, these Indians were em¬ 
braced within the Nebraska and Kansas bill. 
They were taken in—yes, sir, as strangers are 
sometimes “ taken in.” What is now their con¬ 
dition, and what must it be in after time? On this 
point let the Commissioner of Indian Affairs 
speak. In his recent report he says, in reference 
to the Nebraska and Kansas Indians: 

“ In the recent negotiations for their lands, the Indians 
dwelt upon the former pledges and promises made to them, 
and were averse generally to the surrender of any portion 
of their country. They said that they were to have the 
land * £ as long as grass grew, or water run,’’and they feared 
the result if they should consent to yield any part of their 
possessions. VVhen they did consent to sell, it was only 
on the condition that each tribe should retain a portion of 
that tract as a permanent home. Ail were unitedly and 
firmly opposed to another removal. So fixed and settled 
was this idea, that propositions clearly for their interest 
were rejected by them. 

“ The residue of the tribes who have recently ceded their 
lands should, therefore, be considered (subject, in a few 
cases, to a contraction of limits) as permanently fixed. j 
Already the white population is occupying the lands be- ! 
tween, and adjacent to, the Indian reservations, and even I 
going west of and beyond them ; and at no distant day all 
the country immediately to the west of the reserves, which 1 
is worth occupying, would have been taken up. And then I 
the current of population, until within a few years, flowing !| 
only from the East, now comes like an avalanche from the | 
Pacific coast, almost overwhelming the indigenous Indians 
in its approaches. It is, therefore, in my judgment, clear, j 
beyond a doubt or question, that, the emigrated tribes in Kan¬ 
sas Territory are permanently there—there to be thoroughly j 
civilized, and to become a consistent portion of the popu- | 
lation; or there to be destroyed and exterminated. What j 
a spectacle for the view of the statesman, philanthropist, 
Christian—a subject for the most profound consideration ll 
and reflection ! With reservations dotting the eastern por- J 
tion of the Territory, there they stand, the representatives j 
and remnants of tribes once as powerful and dreaded as they 
are now weak and dispirited. By alternate persuasion and 
force, some of these tribes have been removed, step by 
step, from mountain to valley, and from river to plain, un¬ 
til they have been pushed half way across the continent. 
They can go no further; on the ground they now occupy 
the crisis must be met, and theirfuture determined. Among 
them may be found the educated, civilized, and converted 
Indian, the benighted and inveterate heathen, and every 
intermediate grade. But there they are, and as they are, 
without standing obligations in their behalf of the most sol¬ 
emn and imperative character, voluntarily assumed by the 
Government. Their condition is a critical one ; such as to 
entitle them not only to the justice of the Government, but 
to the most profound sympathy of the people. Extermina¬ 
tion may be their fate, but not of necessity. By a union of j 
good influences and proper effort, I believe tlwy may, and 
will, be saved, and their complete civilization effected. 


| “Be that as it may, however, the duty of the Govert?- 
(I ment, is, in my opinion, plain. It should fulfill, with the 
M greatest promptness and facility, every treaty stipulation 
| with these Indians ; frown down, at ihe first dawning, any 
! and every attempt to corrupt them; see that their ample 
annuities are directed faithfully to their education and im¬ 
provement, and not made the means of their destruction ; 
incessantly resist the efforts of the selfish and heartless 
men who, by the specious plans and devices for their own 
gain, may seek to distract and divide them; require dili- 
, genee, energy, and iuti-grity, in the administration of their 
: affairs, by the agents who may be intrusted with their in- 
; terests and welfare, and visit the severest penalty of the 
j law on all who may violate its salutary provisions in rela¬ 
tion to them. Let these tilings be done; the cooperation 
of the civil officers, magistrates, and good citizens of the 
j Territory secured, and the most active efforts of the friends 
J of the benevolent institutions now existing among them be 
brought into exercise for their moral culture; and, by har¬ 
monious and constant effort and action, a change may, and, 
j it is believed, will, be brought about, and Kansas become 
distinguished as a land in which the complete and thorough 
i civilization of the red man was worked out and accom¬ 
plished. ” 

j Sir, it is the violation of treaties, and the bad 
! faith of the white man, and his aggressive course, 
that cause the inquietude of the Indian, and we 
feel it very much in the section of country in 
which I live. There is a remedy; and that remedy 
must be applied, or the Indians exterminated, at 
an expense ten times beyond what would civilize, 
in half a century, every red man who walks upon 
I the soil of America. 1 have seen tribes rise from 
a stale of barbarism to a condition in which they 
| are as civilized in their institutions, in their reli- 
j gion, and in their social refinement and habits as 
! citizens of the United States, and all this has been 
done within half a century. These things are as 
possible now as at any former time; and a sum, 
very easily calculated, less than the amount esti¬ 
mated as necessary to raise these troops and sub¬ 
sist them for one year, would civilize every Indian 
on the continent, set him down on a piece of land, 
and give him “ a local habitation and a name.” 
Is it not worth an attempt? Is it not worth ac¬ 
complishment? Sir, let me give you some expe¬ 
rience in relation to Indians. 

The United States have regiments in Texas, 
and Texas is considered by some as a burden on 
the Treasury. Texas, it is said, exhausts the 
Army of the United States, and withdraws them 
from more eligible stations to protect her frontier. 

I will show you, sir, how that is. In 1842 and 
1843 Texas had a war on hand which had been 
brought about by an exterminating policy pro¬ 
claimed by a new Administration, arxl peace was 
not restored until 1843, when the head of the 
Government of Texas went about the work of 
their civilization. He went into the wilderness, 
on the prairies, and there met the Indians, who 
would not trust themselves within the timbered 
land, nor near any place where there was a pos¬ 
sibility of ambuscade. A treaty was there made, 
which not only stayed the tomahawk, and the 
scalping knife, but preserved peace and safety on 
the frontier until 1849. We were for six year 3 
without massacre, without conflagration, without 
prisoners being taken. Not a Texan was killed 
m that time by the Indians. One man was killed 
near the Indian country, but whether by the 
Mexicans or Indians was a doubtful question; at 
any rate he was not scalped. 

Now, sir, how was this done? By what means ? 
By pursuing a policy which had been initiated 
in 1836, but was disrupted in 1838, and a war 

















7 


brought upon the entire borders of that young: Re* I 
public. The old policy was reestablished in 1843. j 
Resistence was made to it, as there was to every 
attempt made to establish a Government. There 
was an attempt, on the part of some lawless men, 
to resist everything like order and organization, 
and throw the Government into anarchy and mis¬ 
rule; but they failed. These Indians had been 
our enemies; they had been exasperated by un¬ 
provoked aggressions upon them; but the proper 
conciliatory disposition soon won their regard and 
affection. What was the expense of all this? I 
am almost afraid to state it, for I fear it will not 
be credited when we see the enormous estimates 
now made for the expense of treaties with the In¬ 
dians. Sir, every dollar given to the Executive of 
Texas to consummate these treaties, to feed the 
Indians, to make presents, was annually $10,000; 
and he rendered vouchers for the last cent. For 
this sum peace was accomplished and maintained, 
the safety and protection of our frontiers insured, 
and the Indians made peaceable and happy. 

When Texas was annexed to the United States, 
these Indians, on account of faith having been 
maintained with them by the then Executive of 
Texas, refused to meet and confer with the com¬ 
missioners sent to them by the President of the 
United States, until they had the sanction of the 
Government of Texas; and the symbols of confi¬ 
dence were put in the hands of the commissioners 
before the Indians would treat with them. A 
treaty was then negotiated. What was the his¬ 
tory of it? One of the commissioners—a noble 
and gallunt gentleman, who afterwards fell at Che- 
pultepec, in Mexico, at the head of his regiment— 
was too much indisposed to render any assist¬ 
ance. Hts co-commissioner assumed the whole 
business; and what did he do? He had the In¬ 
dians’ names signed with a mark on a sheet of 
paper, had it attested, and brought it on here. He 
made large promises to the Indians; he assured 
them of an annuity of $14,000, to be paid annu¬ 
ally, at a certain trading house; but when he 
wrote his trea'y, (for he did not write it until he 
came here, when he appended to it the sheet con¬ 
taining the signatures,) it contained a provision 
that they should receive barely $14,000 as a full 
acquittance. It cost $60,000 to negotiate this 
treaty, as the records of the Treasury show. This 
is a sum equal to the price of six years peace be¬ 
tween the Indians and the Government of Texas. 




Perhaps, however, the people of Texas were bet¬ 
ter then than now. Since that time they have been 
under the Government of the United States. I 
simply state facts. I leave the inference to others. 

Sir, if the agent appointed by Mr. Polk, who 
has been restored by the present Executive—it is 
a bright spot in his Administration, and I com¬ 
mend him for it—had never been removed, there 
would have been peace to this day on the borders 
of Texas; but as soon as the Indian agent who 
was appointed to succeed him went there, he 
must forsooth establish a ranche; he must have a 
farm. The Indians who had been settled there 
from 1843 up to 1849, had been furnished by the 
Government of Texas with implements of hus¬ 
bandry, with seeds of every description, and they 
were cultivating their little farms. They were 
comfortable und independent. They were living | 
in perfect peace. If you can get Indians located, 
and place their wives and children within your I 


cognizance, you need never expect aggression 
from them. It is the Indian who has his wife in 
security, beyond your reach, who, like the felon 
wolf, goes to a distance to prey on some flock, 
far removed from his den; or like the eagle, who 
seeks his prey from the distance, and never from 
the flocks about his eyrie. The agent to whom I 
have referred lost two oxen from his ranche where 
he kept his cattle. He went to the officer in com¬ 
mand of Fort Belknap, got a force from him, and 
then marched to those Indians sixty miles from 
there, and told them they must pay for the oxen. 
They said, “We know nothing about your oxen; 
our people are here; here are our women and chil¬ 
dren; we have not killed them; we have not stolen 
them; we have enough to eat; we are happy; we 
have raised corn; we have sold corn; we have corn 
to sell; we have sold it to your people, and they 
have paid us for it, and we are happy.” The 
agent and the military gentlemen scared off the 
Indians from the limits of Texas, and drove them 
across the Red river to the Wichita mountains, 
taking every horse and animal they had to pay for 
the two oxen. This was done by an accredited 
agent of the Government, and by an officer who 
deserved but little credit. Are such things toler¬ 
able, and to be tolerated in the present age and 
condition of our Government? 

What was the consequence? Those Indiana 
felt themselves aggrieved. They saw that a new 
regime had come; they had had the era of peace 
and plenty, and now they were expelled by a dif¬ 
ferent influence. They felt grateful for the benign 
effects of the first, policy towards them, and that 
only exasperated them to a greater extent against 
the second; and they began to make incursions, 
ready to take vengeance on any white men they 
might meet in their neighborhood, and slay who¬ 
ever they might find. They made their forays 
from the opposite side of the Red river, from the 
Wichita mountains, and came like an avalanche 
upon our unprotected citizens. There is one fact 
showing how your interference with the Indians 
within her limits has injured Texas. 

There is another fact in connection with the 
Indian policy of Texas which I shall mention. 
How was it with the Wichita Indians? Texas 
sought to conciliate them; they lived beyond her 
borders, and made incursions from the limits of 
the United States into Texas, while she was an 
independent Republic. She did everything in her 
power to bring about peace with them, and, 
through the friendly Indians, was pacifying them. 
Oneof theirchiefs, with his wifeand little child, and 
twelve of his men, came to Fort. Belknap. Some 
one hundred and fifty or two hundred miles west of 
the fort, at Hamilton’s valley, property had been 
stolen by Indians. It was not known which 
out of thirteen different tribes had taken it; for 
outlaws occasionally congregated from each, half 
a dozen of them stealing off from their tribes, with¬ 
out the influence of their chiefs operating upon 
them. They were outlaws, careless of the destiny 
of their tribes, and reckless of the crimes which 
they might commit , so that they could gratify their 
cupidity and recompense their daring. These 
men had taken some property. Dragoons came 
on in the direction of Red river, and reached Fort 
Belknap. So soon as they arrived, the officer said 
to this chief: “ Sir, I retain you as a prisoner. It 
is true, you came under a white flag; but I am an 




















8 


officer; I have the power; I take you prisoner, and 
you must stay here a prisoner until the horses are 
brought back. Your men must stay, too, except 
one. whom I will send to your tribe with intelli¬ 
gence of the fact.” The chief said: “ My tribe 
have not committed the robbery; it is a great 
distance from me; it is in another direction. I 
come from the rising sun; that is towards the 
setting sun; 1 was far from it; you are between 
me and it; 1 did not do it.” “But,” said the 
officer, “you are a prisoner.” The officer put 
him in the guard-house. Imprisonment is eternal 
infamy to an Indian. A prairie Indian would 
rather die a thousand deaths than submit to the 
disgrace of imprisonment. You may wound and 
mutilate him as you please, you may crush every 
limb in the body of a prairie Indian, and if he can 
make no other resistance, he will spit defiance at 
you when you come within his reach. This chief, 
meditating upon his deep disgrace, knowing that 
he was irreparably dishonored, unless he could 
wash out his stains with blood, resolved that night 
that he would either die a freeman or rescue him¬ 
self from dishonor. He rose in the night. He 
would not leave his wife and child in the hands of 
his enemy; so he took his knife, and stabbed his 
squaw and little one to the heart. Not a groan 
was heard, for he well knew where to apply the 
poignard. He went and shot down the sentinel, 
rushed upon the superior officers, was shot, and 
perished like a warriur, in an attempt to wipe a 
stain from his honor. His men fled and returned 
to their tribe, but it was to bring blood, carnage, 
and conflagration upon our settlements. They 
came not again as brothers to smoke the calumet 
of peace, but with brands in their hands to set fire 
to our houses. Contrast that with the previous 
years; contrast it with the harmony which had 
before existed, and you see the lamentable result 
of sending, as Indian agents and Army officers to 
take charge of the Indians, men who know noth¬ 
ing about the Indian character. 

Well, sir, how can Texas expect peace, how 
can she expect protection to her citizens? Not 
from your army. It has never given her protec¬ 
tion; it is incompetent to give protection; and it 
is a reproach to the country. I will not say any¬ 
thing personally unkind of the officers who com¬ 
mand, for they are gentlemen; but I say they 
know nothing about the Indians, and I shall prove 
it. Texas deserves protection, and she can have 
it if a rational effort be made to give it to her, but 
not by your troops. What sort of protection can 
she expect from hostile Indians when the com¬ 
manding officer of that military department a gal¬ 
lant gentleman, who has borne himself nobly in 
the heat of battle, skillful in design, bold and 
gallant in execution, and in all the martial arts 
replete, but amongst the Indians unskilled. He 
has issued an order that no Indian should go 
within twenty miles of a fortress on the frontier 
of Texas. The Indians think, “Very well, you 
say the Indians shall not come within twenty 
miles o-f your forts, and we say your men shall 
not come within twenty miles of us, or we will 
shoot them.” That is a pretty good notion for an 
Indian; it is very natural. The boundary is fixed 
by the white man, and the Indian lives up to it. 

Well, sir, there is a remedy for all this, and it 
is very easy to apply it; but how are we circum¬ 
stanced there? It is supposed by some that we I 


are deriving great aid from the Army, and that 
the greatest portion of the disposable forces of 
the United States is in Texas, and protecting it? 
How can they protect us against the Indians 
when the cavalry have not horses which can trot 
faster than active oxen, and the infantry dare not 
go out in any hostile manner for fear of being shot 
and scalped ! Can they pursue a party who 
pounce down on a settlement and take property, 
and reclaim that property ? Have they ever done 
it? Did the old rangers of Texas ever fail to do 
it, when they were seated on their Texas ponies? 
They were men of intelligence and adroitness in 
| regard to the Indian character, and Indian war¬ 
fare. Do you think a man is fit for such service 
who has been educated at West Point Academy, 
furnished with rich stores of learning; more edu¬ 
cated in the science of war than any general who 
fought through the Revolution, and assisted in 
achieving our independence. Are you going to 
take such gentlemen, and suppose that by intui¬ 
tion they wiil understand the Indian character? 
Or do you suppose they can track a turkey, or a 
deer, in the grass of Texas, or could they track 
an Indian, or would they know whether they 
were tracking a wajon ora carriage. [Laughter.] 
Not at all, sir. We wish, in the first place, to 
i have men suited to the circumstance. Give us 
| agents who are capable of following out their in- 
| structions, and who understand the Indian char- 
j acter. Give us an army, gentlemen, who under- 
j stand not only the science of command, but have 
! some notions of extending justice and protection 
to the Indian, against the aggression of the whites, 
while they protect the whites against the aggres¬ 
sions from the Indians. Then, and not till then, 
will you have peace. 

How is this to be done? Withdraw your army. 
Have five hundred cavalry, if you will; but I 
would rather have two hundred and fifty Texas 
rangers, (such as I could raise,) than five hundred 
of the best cavalry now in service. I would have 
one thousand infantry, so placed as to guard the 
United States against Mexico, and five hundred 
for scouting purposes. I would have five trading 
j houses from the Rio Grande to the Red river for 
i intercourse with the Indians. I would have a guard 
i of twenty five men out of an infantry regiment, 

! at each trading house, who should be vigilant and 
always on the alert. Cultivate intercourse with 
the Indians. Show them that you have comforts 
to exchance for their peltries; btirg them around 
you; domesticate them; familiarize them with 
civilization. Let them see that you are rational 
beings, and they will become rational in imitation 
of you; but take no whisky there at all, not even 
j for the officers, for fear there generosity should let 
| it out. Do this, and you w ill have peace with the 
Indians. Whenever you convince an Indian that 
he is dependent on you for comforts, or for what 
he deems luxuries or elegancies of life, you attach 
him to you. Interest,it is said,governs the world, 
and it will soon ripen into affection. Intercourse 
and kindness will win the fiercest animal on earth 
except the hyena, and iis spots and nature cannot 
be changed. The nature of an Indian can be 
changed. He changes under adverse circum 
stances, and rises into the dignity of a civilize- 
being. If you waragainst him, it takesagenerd 
tion or two to regenerate his race, but iTcan a- 
done. I would have fields around the tradibe 



















houses. I would encourage the Indians to cultivate 
them. Let them see how much it adds to their 
comfort; how it insures to their wives and children 
abundant subsistence, and then you win the In¬ 
dian over to civilization; you charm him, and he 
becomes a civilized man. 

Sir, while people are seeking to civilize and 
christianize men on the banks of the Ganges, or 
the Jordan, or in Burrampootah, why should not 
the same philanthropic influence be extended 
through society, and be exerted in behalf of the 
American Indians? Is not the soul of an Ameri¬ 
can Indian, in the prairie, worth as much as the 
soul of a man on the Ganges, or in Jerusalem ? 
Surely it is. Then let the American Government 
step forward; let it plant the standard of regenera¬ 
tion and civilization among the Indians, and it 
will command the cooperation of the citizens in 
their philanthropic efforts. I am willing to appeal 
to the venerable and distinguished Senator from 
Michigan, who knows what an Indian is, and 
what his disposition is, perhaps more thoroughly 
than I do myself. To him would l defer, but to 
no other man, for a certain and intimate knowl¬ 
edge of the Indian character. 

There is another point in connection with the 
dealings of the Government with the Texas In¬ 
dians to which I will advert. There are the Ca- 
manches of the woods, and the Camanches of the 
prairie. The Texas Indians do not receive their 
annuities in Texas, but they are brought into Kan¬ 
sas, a great distance from us, where they receive 
the munificence of the Government in their annui¬ 
ties, on the east of the Red river and the Arkan¬ 
sas. What is the consequence? They believe 
Texas is not their friend, or that the Federal 
Government, from their crude notions of it, would 
pay them in Texas, and would not make them 
travel over rivers, and through trackless prai¬ 
ries, to receive their presents. They return to 
Texas, not with feelings of respect for the benefits 
they receive, but with contempt. This is bad 
policy. You should distribute your presents to 
the Texas Indians within the limits of Texas. Her 
territory is broad enough; her domain is fertile 
enough; her character is high enough to justify 
you in doing so. She has done much for herself— 
more than this Government has ever done for her. 

In order to treat with the Indians properly, as 
I have said, you should take away your troops, 
except the portion I have stated. The Indians, 
with the exception of the Osages, Kiowas, and 
Kaws, are disposed to be friendly, I believe. As 
to the disaffection of the Siouxs, I look on it only 
as an uprising to resist aggression. They were 
fired on by artillery and small arms, without prov¬ 
ocation, and it is but natural that they should re¬ 
sist. Theirs is not a confederation to assail the 
whites, but to protect themselves. I justify them 
in doing it. I am sorry there is a necessity for it; 
but if I were among them, and they proposed a 
confederacy to repel cruelty and butchery, I would 
join them; and he would be a dastard who would 
not. 

When gentlemen speak of a war upon the In¬ 
dians, have they considered the consequences? 
You may succeed in killing their women and chil¬ 
dren, but it is a remarkable fact that you kill but 
very few of the warriors. Those who march with 
martial display upon the Indians, find them to¬ 
night at one pointat dark; they may see the smoke 


of their fires; and at dawn to-morrow they will be 
fifty or seventy miles away, with their caravans, 
and every child and woman, not even a dog being 
left behind. What army that you could send of 
three thousand men, or any other number, could 
effect anything by making war upon the Indians? 
Why, sir, it would be like the redoubtable exploit 
of the celebrated Kingof France, who, “ with forty 
thousand men marched up a hill, and then marched 
down again.” [Laughter.] Yes, sir, that I pre¬ 
dict would be the history of such a campaign. 

To accomplish the object here contemplated, it 
is proposed to spend $5,000,000. As I have said 
before, that amount of money would civilize every 
Indian on the continent, if you sent men of intel¬ 
ligence and capacity among them to do it. I have 
been delighted with the reports which I have had 
the opportunity of glancing at, accompanying the 
annual report of the Commissioner of Indian Af¬ 
fairs. One from a gentleman who now occupies a 
seat in the other House [Mr. Whitfield] grat¬ 
ified me exceedingly. I have had the pleasure of 
seeing him but once since my arrival. I knew 
him, when a youth, in Tennessee, and he has 
more than met my expectations, though then they 
were not indifferent. He has proved himself to 
be a man of fine perceptions, of excellent judg¬ 
ment, and of good heart. He has capacity to treat 
with and to reclaim the Indians; and, I doubt not, 
that he and other gentlemen who could be asso¬ 
ciated with him, could go to the Indians, with five 
hundred troops, if you please—not march through 
the Indian country, but send word to the chiefs; 
let them know they had a force, and there is not a 
chief, who has had any relations with the United 
States, but would come forward willingly, make 
treaties, and maintain them in good faith Butyou 
must establish trading houses; you must protect 
them, and then you may command the Indians 
absolutely, and you will have no murders upon 
your roads. 

Sir, would it not be much wiser to send a few 
wagons with presents than to send an army? 
Would not the object be effected much sooner by 
sending commissioners with presents? The Ex¬ 
ecutive and Senate are the treaty-making power, 
and all that is necessary for Congress to do, is to 
make an appropriation for the purpose. Would 
it not be much easier to take presents to the In¬ 
dians, and would not the object of attaining and 
preserving peace be much sooner effected in this 
way than by an army ? While you were clothing 
and equipping your army, and marching it there, 
the Indians might kill half the people on the fron¬ 
tier. Your army would have to march thousands 
of miles to reach them; but commissioners could 
go quietly along, with four or five hundred troops, 
or as many as might be necessary; I would leave 
that to their discretion; l would select men of capa¬ 
city for fighting as well as for treating. Send such 
men, and there will be no trouble in bringing about 
peace. My life upon it, $5 000,000 would suffice 
to civilize every Indian who has ever been in treaty 
with the United States, and settle him in a quiet 
comfortable home. 

Some time since the present agent in Texas was 
ordered to lay off a section of country in that 
State for the use of the Indians. He did so. He 
said to the fierce Camanches, “ Come here, my 
j brothers, and settle down.” They have done so. 
i The Indians to whom I before alluded, who were 















10 


driven off by the former agent, after robbing them 
of their horses, upon the assurances given at the 
return of the present worthy and intelligent agent, 
faithful to his trust, came back in perfect confi¬ 
dence, and set themselves to building their houses 
to shelter their women, old men, and children, 
while the warriors went out to kill game. There 
they are. The southern Camanches went within 
the border, and said, “Let us settle;” but they ji 
were immediately told, through the influence of 
the Army, I suppose, that they must not settle 
there. I saw, not long since, a letter from a most 
intelligent gentleman, who said that the officer at 
Fort Belknap, with three companies of rangers, Ji 
and two of regulars, was daily expecting to make 
a descent on the poor Indians who had been set¬ 
tled there by the agent, under the pledges of the 
Government, which promised them that they 
should have a country where they should throw 
away the arts of the wild and the red man, and 
become domestic, agricultural, and civilized in 
their pursuits. They have acquiesced in that pol¬ 
icy of the Government, but are in constant dread 
lest the military gentleman in command of the 
fort, in order to gain laurels and acquire glory, and 
do honor to his profession, may make a descent 
with the regulars and volunteers, or rangers, upon 
the poor Indians. If intelligence of such a descent 
should arrive, I should not be surprised. I shall 
be distressed, to be sure; but it will only be one 
of a thousand distresses which I have felt at the 
wrongs inflicted on the Indians. 

I have before spoken, Mr. President, of the talk 
as to the Army being applied to the defense of 
Texas. What is the efficiency of that Army? 
There are three companies at Fort Belknap. 
What force do you suppose they have? They 
have the incredible amount of efficient force (and 
part of them on the alert, reconnoitenng and scout¬ 
ing) of just sixty men. There were sixty men 
out of three companies ! Now, how many men 
constitute a company ? 

Mr. SHIELDS. Sixty-four. 

Mr. HOUSTON. They have not one third of 
the requisite number. The amount at a fort 
where there are two companies, is thirty men. ji 
This is the protection you afford to Texas. We i 
have no efficient force in Oregon. I have discov¬ 
ered, in looking over the reports that, at the fort, ! 
near the ferry house, where the massacre of such j 
unprecedented atrocity took place, there were but | 
four soldiers. This is the protection your Army 
affords ? 

Now, sir, is it politic to increase the regular 
force of the United States? To govern a country 
well, where intelligence predominates over selfish¬ 
ness and interest, 1 think the smaller the Army is 
the better. I have had some experience in that. 

It is very well to take care of arms and ordnance 
stores, and army stores which would be useful in j 
time of war. It is necessary, I think, to have an J 
Army for that purpose. You may have as great a j 
stock of science as you please; but it does not j 
follow that you are bound to make an officer of j 
every gentleman you educate at West Point. I I 
do not think it would be wise policy to extend the i 
Army to suit the establishment of the Military 
Academy, but rather the Military Academy to the 
interests and exigencies of the country. That is 
my opinion about the Army. 

The nominal number of the Army is fourteen j 


thousand. There is not a vacancy, J presume, for 
an officer in the whole service. According to the 
data 1 have before me, and the items I have given, 
I suppose there are about four thousand five hun¬ 
dred men in the service. To make the actual 
number of fourteen thousand complete, you would 
have to make the nominal force three times four¬ 
teen thousand. Let the head of the Department 
show that they can keep this establishment per¬ 
fect before they go to ingrafting new limbs on it, 
in its present imperfect condition. Let the trunk 
be sound before you graft it. I know that the 
officers will never be less than the establishment; 
and if the soldiers be less than the establishment, 
it shows that it is too large, and ought rather to 
be reduced. Whenever we see that the present 
establishment is kept in order, arid the requisite 
number of men to make itcomplete always in the 
service, it will commend itself to consideration; 
and if a greater amount of force, or a larger estab¬ 
lishment, be necessary, it would be acceded to. I 
do not, however, now see any necessity for it. If 
you increase it, it will never get less. We know 
that, even when the Army is increased in time of 
war, there is difficulty in reducing it to a peace 
establishment afterwards. It has al ways been the 
case, and always will be, that a man, by once 
holding an office temporarily, acquires a claim to 
it which is enforced by relatives and friends; and 
the Army thereby will become an eye-sore to the 
people, and a carbuncle upon the body politic. 

It may be asked, sir, how 1 would furnish pro¬ 
tection to the emigrants who travel on the plains 
to California and Oregon. I would fix a proper 
season at which they should take their departure 
from Fort Laramie. 1 would have them depart 
in companies, each company consisting of about 
one thousand emigrants. Out of these one thou¬ 
sand, the usual proportion would be about two 
hundred and fifty men. I would give them a 
guard of two hundred and fifty more, making five 
hundred men to each company. I would have 
them start in three several bodies in the course of 
the year, so that they should accomplish the trip 
properly, and let them start at such distances that 
they should not be more than one hundred miles 
apart. In this way they would be enabled to 
march across the plains without difficulty. I 
would have a fort at each end of the road to pre¬ 
vent the passage of a company incompetent to 
defend themselves, and not let them undertake to 
cross the wilderness alone. This is the course 
which 1 would pursue, and, I think, in this way 
perfect security would be given to the emigrants. 
Thus, if our citizens would make the venture, 
they would have an escort and a protection capa¬ 
ble of resisting all the Indian power which might 
come upon them. 

Sir, in the course of my remarks I have said 
some things which might seem to bear upon the 
officers of the Army as a class. My partialities 
for military men, and for gentlemen of the Army, 
are of a character not to be doubted. I know their 
high-toned feeling, their honorable bearing, and 
their chivalry; and when l commented upon some 
of them, I only spoke of such as brought them¬ 
selves within the purview of my remarks by im¬ 
propriety of conduct, deserving the reprobation 
of every man who appreciates honorable feelings, 
integrity, and truthfulness. As a class, however, 
I admire and respect them. I have experienced 
















11 


their hospitalities. Once l enjoyed their associa¬ 
tion with pleasure; arid my recollections of early 
habits,' formed in their companionship, always j 
mark a verdant spot in memory’s waste. It is 
only the guilty and the culpable that I condemn. j 
Sir, 1 believe the honorable chairman of the j 
Committee on Military Affairs has withdrawn that:! 
portion of the amendment relating to the appoint- n 
ment of three commissioners to treat with the 
Indians. But, Mr. President, if we wish to do j 
good to the Indians, we have it in our power; if! 
we wish to destroy them, we can starve them out. 

If wejntend to save them, we can do it by appeal- j 
ing^to their best feelings. There is one pathway i 
to an Indian’s heart. If you show him that com¬ 
forts and benefits are to result to his wife and jj 
children, you may command him absolutely, and j! 
he yields implicitly. He has no opposing thought 
to their interest. I have always seen that if you 
could impress an Indian with the conviction that 
comfort and security would inure to his squaw 
and pappooses, from the adoption of a particular I 
policy, he would submit to it. My colleague [Mr. 
Rusk] ktiows that this is the way to the heart of 
an Indian The proudest warrior is humiliated at 
the thought of his wife and little ones being in the j 
least uncomfortable. Wheneveran Indian intends 
to conciliate the whites, he brings his family and ] 
settles as near as he can to a fort or agency, and 
says, “ Here are the hostages I give you for my j 
fidelity to you; if 1 do wrong, l know they will 
suffer; they are dearer to me than my life.” The 
Indians can be brought around trading-houses. 

I have lost all hope of the stations in Texas 
doing any good. I would not have more than 
twenty-five men at a trading-house to give protec¬ 
tion, in the event of any ebullition among the In¬ 
dians of a violent character. It would be entirely 
accidental if such a necessity happened around the 
trading-houses, as to require protection to be given 
to the caravans emigrating to California and Ore¬ 
gon. I would encourage the Indians in the arts 
of peace. You need no armies; you need no In¬ 
dian allies to butcher them. All you have to do I 
is to maintain your faith in carrying out the trea¬ 
ties which have been made, and not directly or 
indirectly encourage men to violate every prin¬ 
ciple of honor and humanity, and deride even 
faith itself. 

After some remarks by Mr. Jones, of Ten- 

Q 08S66 

Mr.’HOUSTON said: The honorable Senator 
from Tennessee, in the course of his remarks, has 
fallen into several errors; he certainly has misap¬ 
prehended me as to the import of my remarks 
about the force necessary to guard the emigrants. 

I estimated them, perhaps, at three thousand an¬ 
nually; I do not care whether it be three hundred 
or three hundred thousand; but in proportion as 
they are numerous, they will afford themselves 
efficient means of defense; and, according to my 
calculation, in twenty thousand there would be 
furnished five thousand fighting men. Then, as 
to a smaller force, if they were organized in the 
march, a small addition of soldiers would be suffi¬ 
cient to give them all the protection that would be 
necessary. It is necessary to subdivide them into 
such companies as can conveniently travel to¬ 
gether, on account of grass, water, and other sup¬ 
plies that th»-y must procure on the prairies 

As to the Army and its efficiency, I remark, 


that if the Army were filled up to the amount that 
is necessary, it would take three times fourteen 
thousand nominally, to furnish an efficient force 
of fourteen thousand in the field. I estimate the 
efficient force at about one third of the number 
that appears on paper. 

Mr. SHIELDS. Will the Senator permit me 
to interrupt him ? 

Mr. HOUSTON. With great pleasure. 

Mr. SHIELDS. The legal or authorized force 
is a little over fourteen thousand, but the actual 
force is about eleven thousand. 

Mr. HOUSTON. Then, Mr. President, for 
security, it will be necessary to keep encampments 
in sight from Fort Laramie until they reach Cali¬ 
fornia. If they are ever out of sight of a guard 
sufficient to protect them, they are liable to depre¬ 
dation. If small companies of only a hundred 
men can thus travel, they will travel at their own 
risk and go to their certain destruction, unless the 
Indians are conciliated; and that shows the neces¬ 
sity of making peace with them. The honorable 
Senator from Tennessee says that it is an impera¬ 
tive necessity to send the army. He says if the 
commissioners fail, you must have recourse to 
chastisement, but if they succeed, the force of 
three thousand men will be unnecessary. 

But, Mr. President, my life upon it, and I do 
not say it lightly, if from three hundred to five 
hundred men were taken by the three commis¬ 
sioners; or, if they limited their escort to forty, or 
fifty, or one hundred men, they would succeed in 
conciliating every Indian on this side of the Rocky 
mountains, if in the mean time the white men do 
not commit aggression. If you send such dis¬ 
creet men as could be selected, you can keep peace; 
and yet, upon the contingency that they may not 
succeed, you are to go to the expense of an army. 
But if we cannot keep up our present establish¬ 
ment of fourteen thousand complete and effective 
for actual service, with all the resources of this 
nation, its increased bounty, and pay, and rations, 
let us give up the Army; let them go to more useful 
employments. What is the use of talking about 
making the establishment commensurate with the 
present wants, if you cannot, keep up the present 
establishment to the necessities and exigencies of 
the country? Let them do that, and expose the 
fallacy of the theory which says that we must 
keep on increasing the Army until we get the 
requisite number to keep up to the established 
standard. Let them reduce the officers to the 
number of men. That is the way to do it. We 
must have some criterion to go by; and until we 
do it we shall never have an efficient Army. The 
Army is small enough. Its efficiency is the great 
object. Now, fourteen thousand men are suffi¬ 
cient for all the exigencies of the country; and we 
must have some mode to give the emigrants secu¬ 
rity, or they must go at their own hazards or 
adventure. I desire to give them protection. You 
have to rely upon the disposition of the Indians 
for security to our emigrants. Unless you con¬ 
ciliate them, all the armies we can take will never 
give the emigrants protection. What kind of 
security can you give to emigrants for a distance 
of fifteen or eighteen hundred miles? You can 
give no protection where the troops would be a 
mile apart, for the unprotected emigrants might be 
attacked and slaughtered before any succor could 
come to them. Sir, it is the feelings of the Indiana 




















12 


which you have to conciliate; it is their friendship, 
their confidence, you must obtain. Treat them 
with justice and liberality, and a hundredth part 
of the money which you spend in supporting the 
Army will keep them faithful. They will not 
violate a treaty unless the aggression is com- [ 
menced by the whites. A few outlaws of a tribe ; 
may; but in such a case the tribe will not sacrifice 
its annuities for the lives of outcasts. It. will either 
execute them or hand them over to the military 
authority of the country for condign punishment. 

In this way a few examples would have an 
electric influence upon all the tribes, for they have 
a more direct communication than the United 
States Government possesses with all its mail 
facilities, until it establishes a telegraph. They 
carry intelligence a hundred miles in twenty-four 
hours, and do you think that the laying off of this 
town in Kansas is not already communicated to 
every tribe of Indians in the prairies? Yes, it 
is; they know that the white man has told the 
Indians, the Delawares, a lie; they know they 
have stolen their land; they know there is no 
faith to be reposed in them. Keep faith with 
them, send men who are wise and instructed in j 
the Indian disposition and character, and they 
will give you peace—my life upon it. You have 
not a solitary man between the Mississippi and 
the Pacific coast, but knows that all the money in 
the Treasury lavished, will never gave you peace 
or protection to the emigrants, until you have the 
confidence and the friendship of the Indians. Were 
you to pay ten thousand, or a hundred thousand, 
or two hundred thousand dollars to keep the 
troops there, they would render no aid of import¬ 
ance to the emigrants, unless you secure the friend¬ 
ship of the Indians. Whenever that is secured 
you will have peace, but as long as you rely on 
military force to give protection to the emigrants, 
you will not have peace. 


January 31, 1855. 

After a speech by Mr. Dodge, of Iowa, 

Mr. HOUSTON said: Mr. President, I am im¬ 
pressed with the belief that any effort of mine, on 
the present occasion, will be unavailing for the 
accomplishment of the object which I have in 
view; but, nevertheless, I regard it as an impera- j 
tive duty to do everything in my power to pre- j 
vent the adoption of a course of policy which I 
consider detrimental to the peace and security of ; 
our frontier settlements. 

I admit, sir, that the measure proposed by the 
Senator from Illinois, [Mr. Shields,] as chairman 1 
of the Committee on Military Affairs, is presented j 
to the Senate in an imposing manner. It seems ' 
to be indorsed by the Secretary of War and the ' 
President of the United States; but, though I en¬ 
tertain full respect for the opinions of those dis¬ 
tinguished gentlemen, I must be allowed liberty 
to investigate the subject for myself, and to put 
my own construction on the facts which are laid Ij 
before us. It is not sufficient for me that a meas- |! 
ure comes here indorsed by the recommendation jj 
of the Executive. If I entertain a different view j 
from the Executive on any point, I must act, as a 
Senator, on my own judgment, and not in subser¬ 
viency to the views of others. Are we to acquiesce 
in the proposition now presented to us, because 
the Senator from Tennessee [Mr. Jones] and 


the Senator from Georgia [Mr Dawson] tell us 
it is indorsed by the Executive Departments, and 
has received their approbation? Are we to be¬ 
come the mere recording instruments of the opin¬ 
ions of the Executive, without the privilege of 
investigating subjects, and acting on them inde¬ 
pendent of those influences which may be brought 
to bear on us? For my own part, Mr. President, 
I shall, when placed here for the purpose of de¬ 
liberation and action, always exercise my own 
opinions, however much I may defer to the rec¬ 
ommendations and opinions of others, as I am 
responsible, not only to my constituents, but to 
the nation. 

I must confess, Mr. President, that I cannot 
regard the necessity as urgent as it seems to be 
esteemed by other gentlemen, and by those who 
have recommended it. It seems to be a measure of 
war, and retaliation for wrongs done; it is a meas¬ 
ure which, we are told, is necessary to save our 
frontiers from aggression, and to protect them 
against violence and warfare. I cannot arrive 
at that conclusion. However misguided 1 may 
he, or however obtuse my faculties, I cannot see 
the slightest indications of a disposition, on the 
part of the Indians, to wage hostilities against this 
country, or to endanger the lives of our citizens, 
if a correct policy were pursued. Sir, we must 
go to the origin of this matter, to see how far 
causes have influenced the present condition of 
things. We shall then be in a situation to apply 
the necessary remedies, and to secure ourfrontiers 
against aggression. In the first place, we are in¬ 
formed by the Secretary of War that— 

“During the past year the Sioux had committed many 
depredations upon the property of the emigrants passing 
Fort Laramie on their route to Oregon and U’ah. On the 
19th of August, Lieutenant Grattan, of the 6th infantry, 
was sent, by the commander of the post, with thirty five 
men to arrest an offender. This entire force was massacred 
by the Indians, with the exception of one man who es¬ 
caped severely wounded, arid subsequently died. The 
circumstances of this affair were at first involved in obscu¬ 
rity ; but authentic details have since proved that the mas¬ 
sacre was the result of a deliberately formed plan, prompted 
by a knowledge of the weakness of the garrison at Fort 
Laramie, and by the temptation to plunder a large quantity 
of public and private stores accumulated at or near that 
post. The number of the Indians engaged in the affair 
was between fifteen hundred and two thousand men.” 

It is very strange that numerous outrages have 
been committed, as we are told by the Secretary 
of War. Sir, what are the facts? Not a single 
outrage was committed upon the frontier in the 
vicinity of Fort Laramie but this; and how was it 
produced? Was it produced by the Indians? We 
are told by the Secretary, too, forsooth, that an 
ambuscade was laid for the purpose of decoying 
this lieutenant, and massacreing him and his party. 
Strange it was, indeed, that he should not have 
discovered that ambuscade, when he, for the dis¬ 
tance of a mile or more, had marched through the 
Indians, with two pieces of artillery, to arrest an 
Indian, without requiring the chiefs, or waiting 
for them, to surrender the offender. But what was 
the offense ? The killing of a crippled cow. That 
embraces the repeated Outrages upon the people in 
the vicinity of Fort Laramie, and on the route to 
Oregon and to California! 

Let us look into the facts. We are told by a 
most intelligent gentleman, General Whitfield, 
an Indian agent, that these Indians had committed 
no depredations until they were fired upon, and 




















13 


one of their chiefs wounded. That took place 
before they attempted to retaliate; and even then, ; 
in the fiist instance, they abstained from anything 
like retaliation, through theinfluence of their chiefs, 
until the artillery was fired upon them. Did that 
look like an ambuscade, which was laid, or x a de¬ 
liberate design to massacre the party ? Sir, these 
are facts. They are not deductions. They are 
verified by as gallant a man as ever was in a camp 
of the United States—a man of intelligence, and 
of character. What was the condition of the In¬ 
dians there? Why, sir, they had been promised 
annuities. They were aware that the goods had 
arrived there. They had been there for nearly 
three weeks. The Indians had patiently waited. 
Their provisious were scarce. The agent was 
expected to return daily, and did soon return and 
possess himself of all the facts. The individual 
whp was relied on by the War Department, made 
an authentic statement to the agent, which was 
verified by no less than seven witnesses who were 
on the ground, that the aggression was made by 
the lieutenant, and at the instigation of a drunken 
interpreter, from whom the lieutenant had taken 
a bottle of whisky, and had thrown it down and 
broken it. Who can suppose that such a medium 
through which to communicate to the Indians was 
calculated either to inspire respect or confidence, 
or that he was a very suitable medium through 
which to present grave matters, and make recla¬ 
mation for a cow ? 

Sir, that cow is to become the wonderful prodigy 
of the present age, and she is to enlist the sympa¬ 
thies of the whole country for the lieutenant and 
his company, who fell victims to indiscretion and 
rashness. Doubtless, induced by the language of 
this drunken interpreter, he acted with the indis¬ 
cretion that would characterize youth, but not the 
deliberation of manhood, and yet this country is 
to be involved in a war, the least expense to be 
attached to which will be $5,000,000. It wdl be 
an expensive cow; and after you have carried on 
the war as long as the war continued in Florida, 
and it has cost you another forty-five millions, 
you will end it in the same way, by peace. Where 
they have boundless deserts, and mountains, and 
fastnesses, and plains in which to find security, 
and when those in Florida, who were hemmed in 
an isthmus or a cape, could not be reduced by the 
Army of the United States, and the militia of the 
South, how are you going to take troops thou¬ 
sands of miles to subdue these Indians in the illim¬ 
itable West? It is impossible that it can be done, 
Mr. President. Then you will have to purchase 
peace; and, beside all that, for ten years to come, 
you will have to increase your officers, and clerks 
in your accounting offices, to pay for the lost horses, 
and the incidental losses and injuries done. 

But, we are told by the honorable Senator from 
Alabama [Mr. Fitzpatrick] that there is great 
danger from the Indians, in large bodies of two 
thousand five hundred, sweeping down the Mis¬ 
souri river and the Mississippi, and that carnage, 
massacre, and slaughter, will be the consequence 
of it. Much respect as I have for the honorable 
Senator—and I assure you it is of the most sincere 
character—I cannot agree with him on these 
Indian subjects, though he has lived in a State | 
contiguous to the Indians, but of a character very I 
different from those of the plains. The Indians j 
of the plains are sui generis when compared with j 


; others. They are not like the Indians located in 
the towns or wigwams of the South; they have no 
marks of civilization in their habits. The want 
of contact with the whites has deprived them of 
a thousand advantages which the Indians of the 
South possessed from the earliest recollection of 
the Senator. 

But, sir, how would a force of Indians embody 
themselves on the frontiers and remain for twenty 
days embodied? It cannot be done. My honor¬ 
able colleague [Mr. Rusk] well knows that they 
cannot do it, unless they have the appliances arid 
comforts of the white man; unless they have stock 
i from which they can prepare provisions for the 
occasion, and produce grain. It is impossible, 
sir, and it is now their daily employment, with the 
exception of a few outlaws or war parties that 
occasionally go out to engage in hunting, to sup¬ 
port their women and children, and to keep them 
from starvation. Yes, sir, it is impossible that 
they can embody themselves, and remain fourteen 
days embodied, in an attitude menacing to the 
security of our frontier settlements. 

I apprehend no danger. We find, from every 
circumstance, that the Indians there are perfectly 
disposed to peace and conciliation. There is no 
disposition to go to war, except on the part of 
some outlaws in each tribe, who may go on pred¬ 
atory excursions, regardless of the authority of 
their chiefs; but the chiefs have influence enough, 
for they are despotic, their power isabsolute, and 
if you will give them time they will control the 
tribe, and those fellows will be surrendered, and 
make an atonement for their crimes. They will 
be surrendered, for, after the killing—I will not 
call it massacre—or after their repelling of the 
attack made by Lieutenant Grattan and his party, 
which terminated so disastrously to them, amount- 
j ing almost to their entire extermination, the chiefs, 
apprehensive of the consequences, and of the diffi¬ 
culty of having the facts presented to this Govern¬ 
ment, and fearing the involvement of their wives 
and children in difficulties, and that they should be 
harassed and reduced to starvation to an extent 
greater than they had yet experienced, came for¬ 
ward with propositions to make reparation for the 
I injury done, and to surrender the offenders. But 
the officer did not receive them. No, sir, he drove 
them off; “ Away, sir, 1 want nothing to do with 
you.” If you wish to have a force, under such 
circumstances, exercising no more discretion or 
precaution than is here evinced, sufficient to pro¬ 
tect our frontier, you will have to maintain three 
hundred thousand, instead of three thousand. 
Why could he not have said to the Indians: 
j “ Bring in the chiefs, I will await the decision,” or, 
“Theagent will be here,or is here; talk to him;” 
but no, sir, the officers were willing; to take the 
responsibility without referring it to the agent. 

And here we find a discrepancy between the 
J report of the head of the Indian bureau and the 
| secretary of War. We find that the Indian agent, 
in detailing the facts, gives them as they are, per- 
‘ fectly authenticated by the best evidence; and we 
find the officers giving a different glossary. These 
statements have to be reconciled. If 1 wished in¬ 
formation in relation to the Army purely, I would, 
with great pleasure and respect, go to the Secre¬ 
tary of War, for 1 know his intelligence would 
i respond to any inquiry that is proper to his duty; 
j but if I want information in relation to the Indians, 




















14 


I go to the head of the Indian bureau, where I 
expect to find an able, intelligent, and attentive 
gentleman. In the present instance, I am happy 
to say that I fully appreciate his conduct. I respect 
his capacity and his consistency in the discharge 
of the duties assigned to him. 

Sir, do we find in the report of the Secretary of 
War as complete information in relation to Indian 
matters as we receive from the Commissioner of 
Indian Affairs? I think not. In relation to the 
recent outrages against the Delaware Indians, in 
the usurpation of their territory in disregard of 
every pledge made by this Government, we find 
that the Secretary of War has not reported the 
delinquency, or the criminality, of the officers 
engaged, but it comes in an authentic shape from 
the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. What should 
be done in relation to this matter, it is not neces¬ 
sary that I should say. 1 gave my opinion the 
other day in relation to what ought to be done. 

Mr. SHIELDS. The honorable Senator al¬ 
ludes to the delinquency of some officers of the 
Army. Now, when charges are made against 
certain officers, I want to get at their names. Let 
them be punished if they have committed a fault. 
I do not like to hear a general accusation without 
specifying the names of the individuals. Will the 
honorable Senator mention them ? 

Mr. HOUSTON. I assure the Senator that 1 
do not exactly recollect; but I am perfectly will¬ 
ing to go as far as the Commissioner of I ndian Af¬ 
fairs. Doubtless they are matters of delicacy; and 
as an investigation may be pending—a court of 
inquiry, or a court-martial—in relation to the offi¬ 
cers, he may not think proper to exhibit their 
names to the public. But he says that two officers 
of the Army were engaged in it; and I go as far 
as I am justified, in giving a statement which is 
authentic, I have no doubt—I am afraid it is; I 
wish I had a doubt. Our functionaries there, 
whether civil or military, are bound to protect the 
Indians equally with the whites. I want to see the 
officers impressed fully with the importance of 
their responsibilities. I want to see them as ready 
to maintain thedignity and character of the United 
States, and preserve, unsullied, its integrity, as I 
do, its arms and its chivalry. It is as much their j 
duty to do so; and there is a chivalry always in | 
protecting the weak against the strong, the defense- j 
less against the aggressor. If the honorable chair- j 
man of the Committee on Military Affairs is pre- I 
pared to say that no officer of the Army has been 1 
concerned in this nefarious transaction, 1 am per¬ 
fectly willing to waive it. If I have done injustice, 
show it to me, and I will take it back. But if the 
Senator is not prepared to do it, I insist upon it, 
as a matter of grave consideration and import to 
the honor of the nation, that it devolves the re-; 
eponsibilitv on the Executive of prompt action. 

Mr. SHIELDS. The honorable Senator will 
see, I think, the propriety of my request. Hej 
presents a report of the Commissioner of Indian 1 
Affairs, charging two officers of the Army with | 
delinquency. 

Mr. HOUSTON. Criminality. 

Mr. SHIELDS. That is still worse; but he 
does not enlighten the Senate, or the world, as to 
who the two officers are; and yet he expects that 
we can answer for some two officers somewhere. 
Now, what l ask, in justice to the Army, in jus¬ 
tice to the Senate, and in justice to_the War De¬ 


partment, Is, that the honorable Senator specify 
who the men are, and what the criminality is of 
which they have been guilty, and then I will join 
him in punishing them. 

Mr. HOUSTON. The report is made by the 
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and is predicated 
upon the statement of General Whitfield. The 
gentlemen named are, Major Maclin and Major 
Ogden, of the United States Army. If they are 
innocent of this, I most heartily hope—having 
known one of them, and felt an interest in his 
appointment—they will be enabled to vindicate 
themselves most fully, and to establish the char¬ 
acter which, I believe, they were entitled to up to 
this time, or until this information came. 

Now, Mr. President, here was a report made 
in relation to the Indians at Fort Laramie. We 
are told that, for three years, these recommenda¬ 
tions for an increase of the Army have been 
before the Senate; and yet, wonderful to tell, all the 
outrages that have been committed upon the emi¬ 
grants to California, and Oregon, was the crippled 
cow transaction. Three years ago there was a 
call for this as loudly as there is now, and yet no 
disastrous consequences have taken place; for, if 
Lieutenant Grattan had never gone there, there 
I would never have been any difficulty; or if, pre- 
J vious to that time, the Army had not gone and 
j committed outrages upon the Indians across the 
Missouri river, there would not have been any 
difficulty. 

Here, sir, by way way of digression, I will 
state that Governor Stevens, with sixty men, and 
j comparatively few presents, perhaps not amount- 
j ing to more than $5,000 in value, traveled through 
all the hostile tribes from Fort Laramie, or where 
j he first struck the Indian country, to Oregon, and 
never met with molestation. He conciliated them 
all; and he speaks of their great anxiety to con- 
j ciiiate the United States, and the great respect and 
hospitality with which he was treated. Some¬ 
times his men were in numbers of four, or greater 
or less, as it happened, and they were always in 
perfect security, and treated with the utmost hos¬ 
pitality. He often ventured himself with three 
or four men into the midst of Indian lodges, and 
received their hospitality; and when he rose from 
a council, in which all his men had been seated 
on handsome buffalo skins, those skins were 
carried to his tent as an expression of respect and 
hospitality. The Indians could, at any time, have 
annihilated his whole command; but he was a 
gentleman of discretion, and possessed of as much 
I chivalry as any one who wore the uniform of the 
United States. That shows you that there is no 
actual danger. 

We hear constantly of traders going through 
the country; and when a gentleman here felt some 
little alarm on one occasion, and described his 
situation as most critical, be said that traders had 
gone out when these occurrences took place at 
Fort Laramie, and be would have sent for them, 
only he was afraid they would all be massacred. 
The Indian traders have gone on. They have 
nothing to defend them. They have no guards, 
no arms; and yet a simple trader, with persona 
enough, Indian or white, to pack and convey the 
articles of traffic which lie possesses, or the pro¬ 
ceeds of his trade, can go through the whole Indian 
country, and not meet with the slightest molesta¬ 
tion or injury. How does this happen, Mr. Pres- 

















15 


ident? Does it happen that the Indians are hos- j 
tile, and that they will not attack a weak party; 
that they want the United States to send armies 
to hurl defiance at them? Sir, their complaint is, 
whenever aggression has been said to have been 
committed by them, or whenever they have retal- j 
iated, that it has been because the white man first |' 
blooded the path, and they wished to walk, too, 
in a path of blood. Yes, sir, that is the secret or 
it. When our traders can go from Fort Laramie, 
or from the frontier of Missouri, Iowa, Wiscon¬ 
sin, and Minnesota, to the Pacific ocean, with 
perfect impunity, and return laden with stores j 
from the desert or the wilderness, obtained in traffic 
with the Indians, i say when our troops are in¬ 
jured, there is a fault somewhere, and that fault is 
in not cultivating kind relations with the Indians, j 
and treating them with justice and humanity. It! 
is the interest of the traders to conciliate them, 
and we never hear of their being robbed. We are 
told that the Indians exact black mail from our 
emigrants to California. Yes, sir, they do; because 
persons who have preceded them have provoked 
and irritated the Indians. I grant you that no i 
caravan ought to go without some military pro¬ 
tection. The male portion of the party well armed, 
with a small military force, can always defend 
themselves against as many Indians as can remain 
embodied in any country where the buffalo is not 
abundant. 1 am for giving ample protection, J 
whatever it may be, to the emigrant trains; but 
they should go in such detachments or caravans as 
wili render it convenient to afford them subsistence, 
for I would not that one scalp should be taken. 

I can exemplify, to some extent, an impression 
that I have when I contrast war measures with 
peace measures. 1 well recollect in 1835, 183G, 
1837 and 1838, in Texas, we had peace. The 
Camanches would come down to the very sea¬ 
board in amity and friendship, would repose con¬ 
fidently in our dwellings, would receive some 
trifling presents, and would return home exulting, 
unless they were maltreated, or their chiefs re¬ 
ceived indignities. If they did receive such, they 
were sure to revisit that section of the country, 
as soon as they went home, and fall upon the 
innocent. 

For the years I have mentioned, in Texas, we 
had perfect peace; and, mark you, it did not cost 
the Government over $10,900 a yeur. We had no j 
standing army. A new Administration came in, 
and the Legislature immediately appropriated 
$1,590,000 for the creation of two regular regi¬ 
ments. Those regiments were raised. What was 
the consequence? The policy had changed in 
the inauguration of the President. Fie announced 
the extermination of the Indians. He marshaled 
his forces. Fie made incursions on a friendly 
tribe, who lived in sight of our settlements, where 
the arts of peace were cultivated and pursued by 
them—by agriculture and other arts, and by the 
exchange and traffic of such productions of the soil 
as were convenient. They lived by traffic with i 
Nacogdoches. The declaration was made, and it 1 
was announced by the Cabinet that they would i 
kill off “ Houston’s pet Indians.” Well, sir, they ji 
killed a very few of them; and my honorable col- j 
league knows very well, if it had not been for the , 
volunteers, they would have licked the regular 
army—as the Indians said; 1 was not there. 

The Cherokees had ever been friendly; and, 


when Texas was in consternation, and the men 
and women were fugitives from the myrmidons of 
Santa Anna, who were sweeping over Texas like 
a simoon, they had aided our people, and given 
them succor; and this was the recompense. They 
were driven from their homes, and were left deso¬ 
late. They were driven up among the Camanches. 
What was the consequence ? Every Indian upon 
our borders, from the Red river to the Rio Grande, 
took the alarm. They learned that extermina¬ 
tion was the cry; and hence it was that the flood 
of invasion came upon our frontiers, and drenched 
them with blood. The policy of extermination 
was pursued, and a massacre of sixteen chiefs at 
San Antonio, who came in amity for a treaty, took 
place. That was in 1840. Before this Army was 
raised, they had been in the habit of coming down 
for purposes of peace and commerce. But un 
army of Indians marched through the settlements 
to the sea-board, one hundred or one hundred and 
fifty miles, undetected, 1 grant you avoiding the 
dense settlements, went to Linville, upon tide 
water, rifled the stores, and slaughtered the men, 
if there were any, the women treated with cruelty, 
and their childiens’ brains were dashed against 
the walls of their peaceful habitations. The ex¬ 
terminating policy brought it on. The country 
became involved in millions of debt, and the In¬ 
dians in Texas were kept in constant irritation. 

That was in 1840; and it was not until the year 
1843, that intercourse could be had with them 
through the medium of the pipe of peace, the 
wampum, and the evidences of friendship. Then, 
what I related the other day occurred, and kind 
relations were again brought about, which sub¬ 
sisted until 1849. For the last year there has not 
been the life of a citizen lost on our borders that 
may be attributed to the Indians. One old man 
and three children were found near Medina, and 
another man was found, not scalped, and we 
know not by whose hands he came to his death— 
whether he was killed by Indians or Mexicans. 
They have detected companies of felons there, 
whites and Mexicans, stealing horses, and running 
them through the wilderness to Red river. The 
forts, they knew, were there, and they could 
dodge them, and go within one mile, or twenty, 
or thirty, just as they please. They are perfectly 
harmless. 

The Indians have killed several soldiers—and 
why? Whenever they get the chance, they treat 
them like dogs. What did they do? The agent 
made an agreement with the principal officer, for 
the Indians, (to enable them to subsist,) that they 
should have a certain amount of powder and lead; 
and the suttler should be permitted to sell it. The 
commanding ofiicer was absent. Perhaps the 
young lieutenant, or the junior—1 hope the Sena¬ 
tor will not ask for the name, for, indeed, l have 
forgotten it—was in command. The Indians came 
in, and asked the suttler for powder. He said, 
“No; you cannot get one grain of powder or 
lead.” “Why,” say they, “our women and 
children are crying with hunger, and we want to 
go out and kill game and feed them; we want the 
powder.” “No, you cannot get powder,” says 
he. They then said, “ if you drive us off, we will 
have to go a.nd join the northern Camanches. We 
have always been disposed to be friendly, but we 
cannot stay and starve. W t must go and join the 
stronger party.” “ Well,” says the officer, “ yoa 

















16 


maygo.” “ But,”say they, “ if war comes on.” 
The reply is, “ War is my trade; bring; it on as 
soon as you please.” They separated; and the 
agent had to send two hundred miles a friendly 
Delaware Indian, before he could overtake that 
band, and, with difficulty, he got them back. 
The agent had to traverse and ride seven hundred 
miles to effect the restoration of harmony. 

That is the way they manage. If these are the 
gentlemen that are to hold the lives and property, 
and the security of our citizens in charge, l want 
them to be men of somediscret on,some wisdom, 
some little experience, not those who have just 
burst from the shell, or juveniles from the Military 
Academy, without ever having seen an Indian, 
and knowing nothing of their disposition. Send 
men of age and discretion, who have some sym¬ 
pathy for the whites, if they have no respect for 
the Indians. Then, sir, you may dispense with 
a great deal of the force which you now have, 
or ought to have, to make the Army efficient. 

Now, you see the consequence of this wiping 
out of the Indians, and making them respect you. 
Whenever you attack them, you embody them; 
for we are t >ld by an agent, Mr. Vaughan, a gen¬ 
tleman of high respectability, as I understand, that 
the Indians are disposed to live in perfect amity 
with the United States; and that they do not only 
say that they are disposed to he at peace, but that 
they report the hostility of other Indians, and say 
that they will cooperate with the whites in giving 
them any information and aid that they possibly 
can; and will assist them in a conflict with hostile 
Indians; so that there is no danger to be appre¬ 
hended If you conciliate but one part, the others 
will not attempt to enter into hostilities. It is for 
the accomplishment of this, that 1 desire to see the 
appliances of peace, not of war, used. Here, for 
instance, Mr. Vaughan says: 

“TheRrulies from the Platte, the Ouh-Papas, Black- 
feet, Sioux, a part of the Yanctonnais, Sans Arc, and Mine- 
cougan hands of the Missouri, openly bid defiance to the 
threats of the Government, and go so far as to say, that 
they do not fear the result should soldiers come to fight 
them.” 

That is all hearsay. It is reported as hearsay, 
not as being authentic. 

“ The rest of the tribes in this agency are disposed to do 
right, and many of them at once will unite in exterminating 
the above bands. Several of them have come voluntarily 
to me, and stated that, should a force be sent here to 
chastise these, they will hold themselves in readiness to 
give any information relative to their locality and move¬ 
ments in their power, and render any assistance that may 
be required of them.” 

Well, now, when you can divide the Indians in 
this way and have one party, suppose you were 
to send two hundred men against hostiies, you 
could acquire an equal Indian force, so as to coun¬ 
tervail them, and the whites would determine at 
once the preponderance in favor of our Govern¬ 
ment. Mr. President, I assure you I cannot agree 
to the proposition. Besides, the general objec¬ 
tions which I have to the increase of the Army as 
the policy of the Government, I will say that we 
have enough in the present force, if properly em¬ 
ployed, with the exception of the convoys neces¬ 
sary to the emigrant trains, and it would be very 
easy to digest a system for that purpose short of 
the contemplated three thousand troops. 

Sir, I discovered furthermore, that in the plan 
suggested, the section of country from which I 
come is left entirely free from all the influences of 


I 


its provision and all its benefits. My honorable 
colleague says, that those who are in danger 
ought to feel for home. I say so too, but l am 
sure he has not looked into this, and exercised 
his accustomed sagacity, or he would perceive 
that Texas has not been mentioned in this provi¬ 
sion; but it relates to the emigrant routes of Cali¬ 
fornia. Texas is to be put out of the way. 

There is nothing central there—no preponder¬ 
ating political influence there. Texas is neglected. 

I made a proposition the other day, that, if the 
troops are to be called out, and one fourth of the 
money were given to our agent that would be an¬ 
nually expended, I would stake my life upon the 
event that we should have perfect peace there; 
and the influence of peace there would radiate to 
the Pacific. Justice will be done. Their wants 
will be supplied. We must remember, sir, there 
is a race of mortals wild, who rove the desert free. 
They owe no homage to the written rules which 
men have made; owe no allegiance to the idle 
forms which art suggests; but, proud of freedom 
in their native wilds, they need but competency’s 
aid to make them blest. Well, sir, feed them. 
You have it to do, or you have to kill them. 
Which is the most expensive, leaving out the hu¬ 
manity of the thing? If you merely regard it as 
a matter of dollars and cents, you will find that to 
feed them is cheaper than to kill them, though you 
should not lose a human life, nor the labor or the 
exposure of the citizens, and suffer the casualties 
which would be brought upon them by a war. 

I go for conciliation; and I come here, Mr. Pres¬ 
ident, to legislate in part for Indians, but not to 
legislate for Indians to the exclusion of the whites. 
But, the honorable Senator from Tennessee, [Mr. 
.Tones,] for whose eloquence and high conceptions 
I have great respect—though I do not, in every¬ 
thing, coincide with him—differs from me. I must 
be permitted to make a commentary upon a few 
sentences which appear in the remarks that he 
made the day before yesterday. He said: 

“ [ am not here to legislate for Indians. I am here to 
legislate for white folks and negroes, and not for Indians. 

I have no Indian constituency ; and I confess that I have 
no great sympathy for them. When I remember iheir bar¬ 
barities in my own State, when I see there the graves made 
hy their hands, this heart of mine has no warm, impel e 
feeling for them. I would do them no wrong ; I would ^ •» 

them all the protection which can be accorded to them ; ,, 

I would protect our own citizens against them. T "V 
should perpetrate no outrage upon our citizens if I co '' 
avert it.” ' 

Mr. President, the Senator says he has no 1 ; 
dian constituency. I have none; and, moreovt I 
Mr. President, 1 have no Buncombe constituenc / 
either. [Laughter.] I have a very proud arr 
exalted constituency. They are pretty much sel 
existent, and independent. But, Mr. Presiden 
I come here to legislate for Indians. I find thet 
embraced within the pale of our Constitution. J„ 
points out the course for me to pursue in relatio/ 
to them in my legislative action. The principle] 
of our Government, independent of the exprest. 
letter of the Constitution, would suggest to mt 
what course to pursue. They are here recognized 
by the action of this body in the ratification or 
rejection of treaties which have been made with 
them. I grant you it is a farce which has lost now 
even the solemnity of a farce, if it ever had any; 
but still I come here to legislate for the Indians. 
To tell you the truth, sir, it is always with great 
reluctance that I see the subject of legislation for 
















17 


negroes introduced into the Senate. I do not 
think it a proper place for it. 1 have never recog- 
nized the right of the Senate to do it, and i never 
will; and there 1 take issue with the honorable 
Senator in that particular. 

But,independent of that, the Indians are a peo¬ 
ple who are upon our borders. We are brought in 
contact with them. We have taken their soil, 
their country. They have yielded to superior in¬ 
telligence, and to the spirit of domination inherent 
in our race. They are a feeble race, yielding to 
the pressure of circumstances, and to the mastery 
of white men. But, sir, if they are inferior, and 
have fallen beneath our prowess, and they are 
prostrate, let us raise them up; let us elevate them; 
let us bring therri to equality with ourselves as 
to intelligence, for they are not inferior in native 
capacity, they are not inferior in the employment 
of mechanical arts. What did the Senator from 
California [Mr. Weller] say yesterday? He 
stated that the wild Indian boys, who were taken 
in California, and put to agricultural pursuits, 
learned with the same readiness that the white boys 
did, to plow, and the arts of agriculture, so far as j 
they had been tried. It was manly testimony, 
and it commends the gentleman and his experi¬ 
ence to consideration. He tells you, too, that 
a few years ago, there were not less than ten 
thousand Indians in four counties, who have now 
dissolved and melted away, until but a fraction 
over three thousand remain. With the vast num¬ 
ber that are still there, perhaps the proportion of 
diminution will soon be as great. We ought to 
look with some degree of commiseration upon 
these people. It is not the duty of every gentle¬ 
man to feel sympathy for them, but he should 
feel a manly respect for himself; he should feel 
for humanity in any shape, for a merciful man 
will be merciful to his beast. They are degraded 
and sunk by their contact with the white man. 
They have, unfortunately, first to learn his vices, 
and, by degrees, to glean his virtues. But yet we 
see, under these influences, nations rise, become 
respectable, intelligent, scientific, and not only 
scientific, or learned, but we find them with their 
judicial department, their political department, 
their administrative department, and their Chris¬ 
tian department. You find, in the last twenty 
years, not less than seventy ministers of the Gos- 
pel have grown up among the Creeks, the last to 
raise a hostile arm against the United States. 
Why not produce the same result with other 
tribes? My distinguished friend from Michigan 
[Mr. Cass] well knows that the Indian is suscepti¬ 
ble, not only of improvement, rapid improvement, 
proportioned to the facilities afforded to him, 
but Lhat he has as high and generous impulses 
83 ever swayed the human heart; or quickened 
life’s vital current; and who, when their friend¬ 
ship is plighted, would give their life to redeem 
you from an adversary’s blow'. Yet these men are 
not worth legislating for! Were their existence 
to terminate, and not to go beyond this earthly 
sphere, were there no eternity to receive the un¬ 
dying spirit of an Indian, humanity would bid us 
do justice to the red men. But they have an un¬ 
dying spirit, and if you inflict wrongs upon them 
and they are unredressed, the accountability is 
beyond human power to tell; but the honor of this 
nation demands the maintenance of good faith 
towards them. Have we heard that any efforts 


have been made to redress the wrongs recently in¬ 
flicted on the Delawares? No, sir, we have not 
heard lhat the military there have interposed and 
driven the offenders from their land. It is not 
neutral territory; it is their property; and the Uni¬ 
ted States is pledged, by treaty, and by honor, to 
protect them in its possession. They have dele¬ 
gated a trust to the United States to sell this land 
if they dispose of it for their benefit; but they 
have not given it to the aggressor. Will the Gov¬ 
ernment permit the wrongs to go unredressed? 
W here is the military authority there, that they do 
not expel the aggressors, in obedience to the in¬ 
tercourse law—persons who are there without per¬ 
mission ? Sir, the nation’s honor grovels in the 
dust, its ermine is soiled, its glories are clouded. 

Mr. President, 1 am reluctant to detain the 
Senate; but 1 must take the liberty of making a 
suggestion, and it may be regarded, in the char¬ 
acter of prophecy or fancy, as may be most con¬ 
venient and acceptable. Raise the three thousand 
troops, make a general war with the Indians; and 
it will take five years to terminate it. It will be¬ 
come a focus of excitement. It will virtually 
arrest emigration to California and to Oregon. It 
will cost you fifty millions of dollars, and you 
then will have to approach these Indians through 
the medium of pacification. Send your wise men, 
three commissioners, if you please, and send two 
or three hundred men, as discreet men might 
designate, and you will make peace with every 
man in the course of nine months, and give per¬ 
fect security to your emigrant trains. You will 
not hear of bloodshed, unless it results from a 
spirit of retaliation provoked by the whites. This 
being done, you would have the blessed reflection 
that you have saved the effusion of human blood. 
The women and children of the Indians will be 
preserved. But if you call the attention of the 
warriors to war and battle, and to marauding, by 
way of retaliation, upon your trains, starvation 
w’ill ensue for want of the means of subsistence. 
Mark these words; pacific force will give peace 
and save millions of money, a hostile force will 
expend millions, waste human life, and dishonor 
the nation. 

After some remarks by Mr. Dodge, of Iowa, 
and Mr. Mallory, 

Mr. HOUSTON said: Mr. President, I hardly 
know what to say in reply to the honorableSenator 
from Iowa, for I hardly know what to think of 
his speech. [Laughter.] If I were to characterize 
his remarks in any way, I should say that they 
were, at least, very remarkable. In the first place, 
let me say to that honorable Senator, and to the 
honorable Senator from Florida, that they were 
i talking about things of which I knew very little, 

! for l w as not in the United States when the occur¬ 
rences to which they alluded took place, and I was 
not, therefore, familiar with the history of those 
war3. If I am not mistaken, however, it was an 
outrage of a very delicate character which brought 
on the Florida war. 

Mr. MALLORY. That is a mistake, sir. 

Mr. HOUSTON. Well, sir, that was the re¬ 
port which was brought to Texas. Whether it was 
true or not, I do not know; but that was the in¬ 
formation which I received from people from that 
section of the country. As for the Black Hawk 
war, 1 know little or nothing about it; for in 
Texas, at that time, we had no mail communica- 











18 


tiona with the United States, and we got hut few j 
papers from the States, so that I remained unin- j 
formed in relation to those matters; but no doubt! 
they were very exciting. The Senator from Iowa 
said the Black Hawk war was brought on by a 
council of the nation; but I have heard that an 
examination of the circumstances will show that; 
the first outrage v/as committed by an individual, 
not by the concurrence of the nation, though they 
afterwards became involved in the general war. J 
In that statement, I believe, I am sustained by the 
history of the times. I have already stated that | 
occasions occur where outlaws among the Indians 
commit acts of aggression on the whites, and 
the whites immediately retaliate on the Indian j 
nations, and those nations, in self-defense, become j 
involved in war; but I never knew a case where 
a treaty, which was made and carried out in good ! 
faith by the Government, was violated by the 
Indians. In Florida the Indians complained that j 
they had been deceived in the treaty, and that the 1 
boundaries assigned were not as they understood j; 
them-,' and they killed their own chiefs. It was 
charged that some of the agents were involved in 
speculations to a great extent, dependent on the 
treaty. I recollect it was so stated at the time. 

I think, sir, the Senator’s speech was of a re¬ 
markable character in relation to politics and other 
matters, which I am sorry that he has introduced. 1 
He has undertaken to admonish me, and for this 
admonition I am much obliged to him. His expe- j; 
rience,his superior opportunities, may entitle him,; j 
in the opinion of others, to the right of admonish- 1 
ing me; and I am perfectly willing, on that point, 
to yield my own opinion to what may be the gen¬ 
eral impression of the body. I did not provoke 
his remarks by any allusion to any one, predicated 
upon my own disposition to arraign the conduct | 
of others; nor have I asserted anything in regard ; 
to the officers of the Army, but what are matters 
of fact taken from the official documents. When 
I made suggestions of a speculative character, I 
gave them as such. 

But, Mr. President, the Senator from Iowa has 
said that he would not have been astonished if the 
rankest Abolitionist had made such a speech, and 
had avowed such sentiments as I did. He says 
that, if a man in western New York had presented 
such views he would not have been surprised. 
Now, I wish to know what connection my re¬ 
marks had with Abolition ? What connection had ! 
they with any one in western New York? In 
what respect have I catered to any prejudice or 
morbid sensibility? I have stood here alone in 
this body, against a powerful array of talent and 
influence, contending for what I conceivedto bee 
a great principle, and which must obtain or tht 
Indian race be exterminated. In regard to that 
principle, 1 have the concurrence of the Senator 
from Tennessee, [Mr. Beli.,] who was once 
Secretary of War, and as such had control of the 
Indian department, and who has, since that pe¬ 
riod, been a prominent member of the Committee 
on Indian Affairs of the Senate. I believe that 
my opinions are also concurred in by the Senator 
from Arkansas, [Mr. Sebastian,] who is the 
head of the Committee on Indian Affairs. I can j 
inform the Senator from Iowa that I will sustain | 
him to the extent of my humble abilities in any j 
measure he may introduce in favor of the Indians, I 
and for the establishment of a policy which will | 


ultimately benefit them and reflect credit upon the 
Government of the United States. 

I have not been regardless of what I considered 
the honor of the United States, and the interest 
of the Indians. In no instance have I been remiss 
in these particulars. I could not cater to any 
passion or prejudice on this subject, because I 
know of no socieiies in the North, or in the South, 
or in any section of this Union, for the advance¬ 
ment of the civilization of the Indians. If such 
societies exist, I am not in correspondence with 
them, nor am I aware of the existence of any 
such associations. Then, for what ulterior pur¬ 
poses could I advocate the rights of the Indians, 
or invoke the justice of this Government towards 
them? Could it be any expectation of political 
benefits? None upon earth. I presume the Abo¬ 
litionists are perfectly absorbed in the subject of 
Abolition. For myself, 1 would rather see them 
turn their attention to the amelioration of the con¬ 
dition of the Indians on our western wilds, or to 
the reclamation of those whom they hold in 
slavery. There are not less than two thousand 
prisoners in the hands of the Camanches; four 
hundred in one band, in my own Slate. The pris¬ 
oners can be reclaimed from those Indians, who 
are coming down to settle upon their reservations. 
They take no prisoners but women and boys. 
The boys they treat with a degree of barbarity 
unprecedented; and their cruelties towards the 
females are nameless and atrocious. Our Gov¬ 
ernment is silent in relation to them. Has hu¬ 
manity no claims upon us in this respect? Has 
justice no demand unanswered ? Sir, we have 
not seen the facts to which I have just alluded 
impressed on a page of our official communica¬ 
tions from the War Department. The officers 
stationed near the places where those transactions 
have taken place have not reported them. No 
effort has been made to obtain appropriations for 
the reclamation and redemption of those prisoners. 
This is a subject which calls aloud for the humane 
influence of the Senator. There is no “ sickly 
sentimentality” in this, but a manly upheaving of 
soul, that, in commiseration of suffering humanity, 
demands that the Government shall rescue them 
from the most cruel and unrelenting bondage. 

I have been accused of catering to a morbid, 
“sickly sentimentality.” Sir, I never yielded 
anything of my own conscientious convictions to 
consult the opinions of others. I never stooped 
to solicit office; but I have received and accepted it 
to my own disadvantage. I might have hated the 
Indians, if I had a soul no bigger than a shell bark. 
[Laughter.] 

In my boyish days,before manhood had har¬ 
dened my thews and muscles, I received balls and 
arrows in this body, in defenseofsuffering human¬ 
ity, particularly women and children, against the 
Indians; and 1 aided in reclaiming the brightest 
spot of the South—Alabama. When I remember 
that, in those early days, I assisted in rescuing 
females and children from the relentless tomahawk 
and scalping knife, it seems to me that the charge 
that I have stooped to court favor by the expres¬ 
sion of my sentiments on this question, is ona 
which falls harmless at my feet. 

I hardly know what to think of the gentleman’s 
remarks as to catering for the presidency. 1 hardly 
know wlmt to say about the extraneous subjects 
which he has introduced. I suppose the shortest 


10 B 113. 

















19 


way of naming what he intended to allude to, is : 
by the term “Know-Nothing.” Now, of the 
Know-Nothings 1 know nothing, [laughter,] and 
of them I care nothing. But if the principles 
which I see charged to them in many instances 
are the principles which they seek to carry out, I 
can say to gentlemen that 1 concur in many of' 
them. If their object is to resist the encroach¬ 
ments of one religion or sect upon another, I am 
with them. I say resist all such encroachments, 
and leave all religion uncontaminated by the per¬ 
version of power that might accidentally result in ' 
proscription and the inquisition. “I’ll none of 
it;” I am opposed to and would prevent such a ! 
result. 

1 admit that we are all descended from for¬ 
eigners, because, originally, there were no natives 
here who were white men. Many of those for¬ 
eigners who originally came here were baptized 
in the blood of the Revolution; but they were 
not such men as are now coming to our shores, 
and should not be named in connection with those 
who are spewed loathingly from the prisons of 
England, and from the pauper houses of Europe. 
Such men are not to be compared to our ancestry, 
or to the immigration which, until recently, has 
come to our shores from foreign countries. If 
the object of those to whom the Senator from 
Iowa has referred, be to prevent men of infamous 
character and paupers from coming here, I agree 
with them. I would say, establish a law requiring 
every person from abroad, before being received 
here, to bring an indorsement from one of our 
consuls abroad, and produce evidence of good 
character from the place whence he emigrates, so 
that, when he comes here, we may receive him 
into full communion with all the rights gauarantied 
to him by the laws which may exist at the time 
of his immigration. But, sir, to say that a felon, 
who left his prison the day he sailed for this coun¬ 
try, or, perhaps, was brought in chains to the 
vessel which bore him here, is, in five years, to 
stand an equal with the proudest man who walks 
on our soil, the man who has shed his blood to 
consecrate liberty and his country, is not the 
kind of arrangement that I go for. 

Mr. MALLORY. Will the Senator from Texas 
allow me to ask him one question? 

Mr. HOUSTON. With pleasure. 

Mr. MALLORY. As the subject of Know- 
Nothingism, as it is called, has been brought 
here- 

Mr. HOUSTON. I have not introduced it, 
and I am not going to comment on it. 

Mr. MALLORY. Precisely so; the Senator 
has not introduced the subject, and perhaps he is 
not responsible for its introduction; but he is un¬ 
dertaking to say what he himself thinks upon it. 
Now, as he is speaking on the subject, 1 should 
like to understand distinctly whether he approves 
or does not approve of so much of the creed 
attributed to the Know-Nothings as would make 
those who profess the Roman Catholic religion 
ineligible to office? 

Mr. HOUSTON. I would vote for no such 
law. 

Mr. MALLORY. I asked the gentleman 
whether he approved that or not—not whether he 
would vote for it. 

Mr. HOUSTON. No, sir; I could not approve 
of such a law. But the proscription which is 


i charged on those to whom allusion has been made, 
is no more than formerly existed between Whigs 
and Democrats. When party discipline was kept 
up, if a Whig voted for a Democratic candidate 
he was ruled out of his party and branded as a 
deserter; and if a Democrat voted for a Whig he 
was disowned by his party. That species*of po¬ 
litical proscription will exist everywhere, accord- 
j ing to the notions of people. 1 do not set up my 
opinion as the doctrine by which others are to be 
governed. I am governed by my own principles, 
and my own sentiments, and I have a right to 
vindicate them, and 1 am responsible for them to 
the world. When the Senator from Iowa supposes 
that I would cater for the presidency of the United 
States, he does me great injustice. I would not 
cater for any office beneath Heaven. But, sir, I 
know one thing: if it were to be forced upon me, 
1 should make a great many changes in some 
small matters. [Laughter.] 

Mr. President, 1 am very sorry that my young 
friend from Iowa, for whom I entertain so much 
respect, should have acted as he has done. He 
certainly has gone beyond anything that I had 
imagined. He supposes that my object in ad¬ 
dressing the Senate on this Indian subject was to 
connect it with the Nebraska and Kansas bill. I 
have not thought of that bill except that I alluded 
i to the manner in which it was passed yesterday 
evening, when the Senate refused, rather discourt¬ 
eously, as I thought, to adjourn to enable a Sen¬ 
ator to speak; but I now take back what I then 
said, for the Senate did afterwards adjourn. I 
alluded then to the manner in which the passage 
of the Nebraska bill was effected, but I have not 
thought of it in the speeches which I have made 
upon our Indian relations. I have sought to let it 
go by and rest in peace. I have not been anxious 
to renew the controversy in regard to it. If it is 
for good, 1 hope good will result from it; if for 
evil, I hope the least possible evil will be the result. 

I have nothing to do with this now, and I shall 
not allude to it further. 

The Senator from Iowa says that I have at¬ 
tacked the Indian agents and the officers of the 
Army. I have not reflected upon a single agent 
of this Government. If I think honestly that a 
measure recommended by the Administration is 
impolitic, unwise, and unproductive of good to 
the country, I have the undoubted right to oppose 
it in argument, and to vote against it. That is a 
h privilege which pertains to me as a Senator from 
one of the States of this Union. I have a right 
to exercise that privilege. It arrogates nothing to 
myself, and, therefore, I shall exercise it. It is 
not, however, to be supposed, because I vote 
against this measure, that I am opposed to the 
Administration, or find fault with its every act. 
If the gentleman had reflected, he would have 
come to the conclusion that the Administration 
has done so many good acts that I cannot partic¬ 
ularize them; arid because I do not concur in this 
measure, it is not condemnatory of the general 
course of the Administration. All 1 have to do, 
at present, is with this measure. 

The Senator from Iowa misapprehended me in 
another respect; and that was, in supposing that 
I was opposed to raising even five hundred men. 
I say, raise that number; raise men enough to go 
as convoys or guards to the emigrating parties; 
;and, besides that, send out commissioners who are 

















wise and discreet men—such as were taken to ex- j 
plore the promised land of Canaan in olden times. | 
Let them go and bring reports of the feelings of , 
the Indians, and see whether good fruits will not j 
result. Let them go there, and make treaties with 
the Indians. Let them take two hundred, or three 
hundred, or five hundred men with them. If I 
were going, I should not take more than three 
hundred. Indeed, I believe one hundred would be 
sufficient to meet the Camanches. One hundred 
Americans, with Sharp’s rifles, would subdue the 
whole of them, if they could get the Indians to 
come to them.^There is the difficulty. You 
know there is an old adage about catching birds. 
Nurses tell children to put a little salt upon their 
tails, and you have them. [Laughter.] You can¬ 
not catch these fellows in that-way. You cannot 
get near enough to them; and there is the difficulty. 

But, sir, in order to sustain what 1 said in rela¬ 
tion to officers of the Army, I wish to read an 
extract from the last official report of the Com¬ 
missioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of the 
Interior: 

“ As heretofore reported to you, ah association of per¬ 
sons has undertaken to appropriate to their own use a por¬ 
tion of the land ceded by the Delawares, fronting on the 
Missouri river, and soutli of Fort Leavenworth : have laid 
out a city thereon, and actually had a public sale of the lots 
of the same on the 9th and 10th of October last. These / 


unlawful proceedings have not only taken place under the 
eyes of the military officers stationed at the fort, but two of 
them are said to be members of the association, and have 
been active agents in this discreditable business. Encour¬ 
aged by these proceedings, and prompted by those engaged 
in them, other persons have gone on other portions of the 
tract ceded by the Delawares in trust to the United States, 
and pretend to have made, and are now making, such 
‘ claims’as they assert will vest in them the lawful right to 
enter the land at the minimum price under the preemption 
law of July 22, 1854.” 

There is the authority from which I drew my 
conclusions in relation to the conduct of those 
officers. I have not branded them with any op¬ 
probrious terms. If they are innocent, what I 
said cannot injure them; if they are guilty, there 
is no condemnation too deep for them. 

Mr. DODGE, of Iowa. I hope the Senator 
from Texas will name the persons who have been 
guilty of the conduct to which he has alluded. 

Mr. HOUSTON. I have given the quotation 
from the official documents. I will tell the Sena¬ 
tor the reasons why I referred to that transaction. 
In the first place, it was to demonstrate the fact 
that aggressions are committed upon the Indians; 
and is not this calculated to dissolve the bands of 
peace, and bring on war? In the next place, this 
country is under the control of the military; and 
why have they not restrained those people from 
such an outrage? 










































c, C vP 

•* A 

<> V '° • ‘ 4 a ^ 

\ A C° .C^, °o A A^> A_ 

5 ^ o x • ^ o x £#r§w^ - o k 



% V ^>\ V V< 'vWj' * v 

<Cr <K '» - *• 4 A <\ Vt',.*' <0 * a? 'o. * 

.0^ .. t • L ' * <* "*o A ( »“ 5 . <*9 o^ .•-''* ^o A 1 

Cj /y?7 -3 * O ,i p • r-srS'x , *■ 'p / ^ t /vyi-, t . ■> <p 

i v> 'y. v + ij&il/A ?i _ t, cV\\W'&i + -Y \J * ^ X 

k- ^^ ‘imfQp* *o\^ o ^^ 2 ^ u> ^a ^ a 




o V 




>°v 


^>: ,o.,, 


A' 


• %A ‘^A ^ 

" ,v > 'V •w|f; ^ 

' A •> vJ!?AN 4 ' - 4 . 


^ -.-e-'s”/ ^ ^ ^^ 35 ^* >" 

v* • ■ v.-..„v • • •>*> . / v* • ■ ^\.... <v 

-»>-.^ .V^SllV. ^ A iS %\ 


o 

£ - ^o v 








0 - 



^ * 4r ^ 

^ * *’ <A 

<9 * * * °' \> v 


A ^ 


► ^ 

«/• -y 






v<> 



o 

„ c 


4 *> 

"*' 1 ‘ <y 

V A 

** A * 

- -i///n umv . - _ X"\ 

A V "*?r\ 0 f/y/ \v<\\Nj "* v \ ^ -* 0 ,. 9 '■^"9 

,* <j> ^ -yj^,* V s ■**> 9%ftP,* a ^ -.-g-^v 4 

.0^ t * L ' * * <=> Ay c 0 " 0 t <^, 0 ^ .'-'*+^'0 A V 

C ± * O J t> • _£<y<\ *• *f> y»VJ t rSl-lJ? t 1 •> A 

t - ' '-^a -a, y oAiiV- v< ‘>5^*^ »-_.-^ > 


0 ’ 


r o 


’/ N v 10 ' t ' > 0v ^ 

A °,. ‘•■• , a° V 

V <* *?* *■ (? 53 • -s. y, 

•«£ ^J- 



O' 





O V 



iP^ '* 
0° ^ 

v fc *‘ VL% <0^ «, < * 


K 

o , A 

o A c 0 “ 0 ^ 

o N A * ^ c,^ 

4 y' o /innxvmI w> 

^ o x 


'o V 


, 0 ‘ 




! °\ ’^^0: f ^°' t ‘ " 

v, sK *- ^ . ■* ■<?- 

^ *' 1 A 

9 + \* 0 * y> \, s s ' v O 9 V ^ v • o Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 

* Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 

^ 9 v/^ c ^) ^,A\ Treatment Date: March 2010 

a- •'V /\ : .^| PreservationTechnologies 

•tl -,.^4 ^ ^ >>9 . ^ -%iT^ A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATION 

♦ « 5 -0 'o . 1 J 9. ^ v ^ _ s 111 Thomson Park Drive 

qV a i / « ^ ^ 0 m c Cranberry Township, PA 16066 

j* 


<* 



U 


,0 <•"'* 'O 

0 <• JP ^ 


, \> c o " «= ^ r5> 

A ♦ *f* 


(724) 779-2111 






'-'r."'' . 0 ^ 

<- ^ c 0 t • 11 ' * ♦ 

lx* ~y . v * a?J777p->' r O j 

»«• yp . -C \ ■» <. N 

*• -‘•o' ^ov 4 

, /V^'V'%. 

^ o«o 0 

V s ^ v % c> .<y _» . 

* jSFrfl *m. « ^ A' 


C, vP 

. v • »eio * «? ^ 

x ' ' xV X" J 

a> <* '•••* xC^ *' 





^°XS 
+ N' 

■» <x ‘ C X. -SJO- - 

_ V- Oy * O * O ° . O' 

V » V t °' > v" s 5 V* % o^ 

<£ *>Va % ^ .vstec-. ^ - 

cf *ya* -J 01 ' 

r** v\ v <> j o^^-.v^; A^- 

^ ^ 4 V ^ •J®KSr** <£* J ^-, ok/5^Ak * a^ ^ 

O ■* O . 4 X A A ♦ ' A • <T £J 4 V ^ 

'£* x\ V ' * * 5 <0 O 'o . A X a ^ 

C b ^ C 0 t ^ ^ , c 0 " ° * 

• x ^ a. a ■ * *j@ilt?. ; ).° •% «5 «L 

c ^ •'" ,<?> V O * o « o ’ - (V <*\ ■' ^ 

° - * \> * S • • 




s r <f v <K> - 

\ C°/•A'% °o . 

- A. 0 < ; 4 ils»’- -o/ 


/ °- 'M|^“ ^-v 

V <=*. -...’ ,0 J X- .,,, 

' s* V ' v o iy . x ♦ ~ ^ 



- x-xv^ - ^ ' 

O ^ A o r\^ (v 

^ V s * • ^ ° A 0 ^ 

- x , V °V ->P ' V * ° 

; , *>Jq|- ' 

° c.^ ^ oM®. A v^ 

■ » &, o vM * aV ^ 

aV <V> «0 V o *o.,‘ A ^ 

. ^ ,0*0^ \p _V L / * ^ ,\\ u V^-, 

* C r JVW,^^ Ap ^0 4*VL * O. ««• - 0 " « 

O V 







^ ‘-w; 

A V . ^ «< 

^ ,0' y\Vy o^ o° -•♦ 

•y 0 * O • r^f\ & r u 

• -"-o' -m^- ,> bi? A- 0 < 

Pv- 


4 o 



V " ^ ‘A ••••■' a 1 

•> V >'V4/» o. y 

° ^ A.P • ^Sfe»r'. "A A -8 - 


o A 0 *7*• 

s ? V. * 

^0 ^ 



/ >, V 13 

- *' ^ 

>0^ t .‘*.r; ♦o 

V * 



^ A 
^ V 


4 o • 

v<V 

, ’•«- *> v' A 

bo ^ -AA ^AflllllllftA? 

« v'V 



A. 0 t 


4 cl 

yP. 



o » k 


s * • 



'.* ^ A. . 

- • •" /y <\ * *, 4 «* (j o 

y .y--, -a y .--.yo 

wjx vp ^#V \ - * <>• -4^ 

> .' 1 ^Wv* a0^ > 

- ^WVNJ-, • p. ^ * V? _ ' V- P^*. 

-2- •> 0 A 0 *<’ ,V O. *- -■> "■> 

». ^ y > v' . 

V Vy ’i 



■o^ ♦< 


\n b" 

X a’ • 

’ * * “ A <a 

A^ G° * 0 4 

w y , O' 

o V 4, ^o* 

D »t* *• * 4 0 

% .K o v 

V ^ " 0 

D0BB3 BROS. V s s '*\ O a «0 ^ 

LIBRARY BINDING L ^*4 ><fe. «» *P 

• a v * SrTfS * ^ < 

•<AR 7> ry 

-T. AUGUSTINE ^ ° 0 

ti+ * 

k FLA. 





<\ v '7".s s ,0 

V / 

*y \J i 

* -T 4 , 4 «* 

, * ^0^ • J 

v Ap. *. <^yy/ \> •0» yP * 

, n o ^ Jy o ' 

,f° ^ ' * 1 ‘ ^ 

V .** C' 

> *, r 

•; °, •« 

r 4 a > V*x o 

4 9> ^ 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
0 024 426 002 0 



.:|M# Sli -A':::.’.•••• ;• •• \ • i'»; 






'■ 




>'»; ■ '•■!■■ |’«'§b ■.' JM/ • ' I..' ■?/ • .'»•:*,* I !• m -f; 



















